A conservative activist was able to leverage TikTok and Facebook in less than five months to spark nationwide school protests against masks and vaccines, prompting some school districts to respond.
After a TikTok video encouraging conservative protests around the country went viral in April, the account owner created Freedom515, an organization that now has a network of 51 private Facebook groups and over 30,000 members. In the months that followed, the user leveraged both platforms to organize numerous right-wing protests for people fed up with “the direction of things,” including anti-masks school walkouts on September 10, eventually forcing schools across the country to warn students and parents about them.
Despite promises to curb such content, Facebook and TikTok have struggled to combat COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation throughout the pandemic -- some of which has helped inspire in-person events and caused real-world harm. In particular, Facebook has struggled with its groups feature, which can be more difficult to moderate than other aspects of the social network. Similarly, TikTok’s unique “For You” page allows even videos from accounts with small followings to be seen by thousands of people, posing another challenge for effective moderation.
In our latest study, Media Matters shows how one anti-mask activist -- TikTok user @logicandliberty -- leveraged Facebook groups and TikTok’s “For You” page to create Freedom515, a nationwide group with dozens of state chapters. By our count, two TikTok videos from @logicandliberty have been seen roughly 1 million times combined, while the hashtag #Freedom515 on TikTok has 3.9 million views. Freedom515 has held three nationwide events, and the organization now has 51 private Facebook groups with over 30,000 members combined -- all accumulated within the last four months.
Freedom515’s most recent event, #WalkOutUSA on September 10, encouraged students to walk out of schools or parents to pick up their children from school -- all to protest mask and vaccine mandates. Opposition to children’s mask usage in schools had ramped up over the summer, with anti-mask activists sometimes organizing protests and opposition on Facebook. The September 10 event was amplified by other right-wing groups, and several school districts had to send letters to parents warning about the potential protests. Meanwhile, the group has been selling merchandise promoting the organization.
Here is a timeline of how @logicandliberty's one TikTok video posted in April helped establish Freedom515 and eventually forced schools across the country to address the threat of planned protests:
