Angel of Death Challenge

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About

Tantangan Malaikat Maut (Eng. Angel of Death Challenge) refers to a social media trend in which people jump in front of a moving truck in the hopes it stops in front of them. The trend has gained attention in Indonesia and abroad due to many accidents and some deaths.

Origin

It is unknown when and where the challenge started. The earliest known example of the challenge was uploaded on March 26th, 2021 by Instagram^[1] user @kabartangsel, who uploaded a video of young people jumping in front of a moving dump truck on purpose in the hopes the truck will stop right in front of them. Instead, they are hit by the passing truck because it didn't brake in time. The video received more than 11,000 views in one year.

Spread

Over the following year, the challenge became the subject of memes criticizing and making fun those who participated in the challenge. For example on July 19th, 2021, TikTok^[6] user @kingtae.life uploaded a video about the challenge using the video game Grand Theft Auto V. The video received more than 51,000 views in one year (shown below).

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6986576140798348571

2022 Accident

The trend gained more attention on June 3rd, 2022, when Twitter^[2] user @AboutTNG uploaded footage of young people attempting the same thing, resulting in one of their deaths. The tweet received 617 retweets and more than 1,500 likes (shown below).

Aksi nekat remaja menghentikan truk di Jl. Otista, Karawaci, Kota Tangerang telah memakan korban, Jumat (3/6/2022) siang.

"Baru kemarin dirazia, udah buat onar lagi. Mereka kumpul 10 orang lebih. 1 meninggal tertabrak kontainer," ujar warga yang mengirim info melalui Whatsapp. pic.twitter.com/tipWrl30sf
— About Tangerang (@AboutTNG) June 3, 2022

Several media outlets including Coconuts^[3], New York Post^[4] and Insider^[5] published an article about the incident.

On June 7th, 2022, Facebook^[7] user Dewi XD uploaded an image reenacting the accident by using a screenshot of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to the "warga Rpm albase" group. The post received 479 reactions and 242 shares (shown below, left). On the next day, Indonesian webcomic "Si Kacamata Gila" uploaded a webcomic about the challenge to his Facebook^[8] page. It received 876 reactions and 133 shares (shown below, right).