Zoom Kidnappings

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About

Zoom Kidnappings refers to a prank pulled by college and high school students engaging in remote learning on Zoom in which their roommates come into frame, dressed as criminals and appear to take them hostage, effectively getting the student out of the lecture.

Origin

On September 2nd, 2020, TikTok user @ben_tate was virtually attending a lecture when his roommates entered the frame dressed as criminals and appeared to kidnap him. The post gained over 27 million likes (shown below).

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6867965228500471045

Spread

Over the following weeks, more teenagers staging a kidnapping on Zoom began to go viral on TikTok and Twitter. On September 10th, 2020, @BarstoolQuinnipiac started a thread of Zoom kidnappings (shown below).

Please be safe out there Bobcats. Multiple Zoom kidnappings have been reported. Please keep your doors locked and watch your back. Zoom in pairs if you have to. #BeSafeBobcats
Watch 1/3 pic.twitter.com/rf2cUUAPsa
— Barstool Quinnipiac (@BarstoolQU) September 10, 2020

Your 2/3 pic.twitter.com/q7So48AULz
— Barstool Quinnipiac (@BarstoolQU) September 10, 2020

On September 21st, Twitter user @BlayOfficial posted an example that gained over 82,000 retweets and 288,000 likes (shown below). The staged kidnappings were covered by Fox News^[1] and the Daily Dot.^[2]

They staged a kidnapping to get him out of lectures. This is real friendship goals 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/zHrFtf7URS
— Blay 🇬🇭🇨🇮 (@Blayofficial) September 21, 2020

Various Examples

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6867965228500471045

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6870557311086202117

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6868408192905317638

Search Interest

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External References

^[1] Fox News – Students are faking being kidnapped during Zoom classes, viral videos show

^[2] Daily Dot – Teens are staging Zoom kidnappings to get out of online classes

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Top Comments

David Bowie (The Sovereign)

Sep 25, 2020 at 05:26PM EDT

This is fucking stupid and sets a bad example that could result in a realistic re-enactment of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, where a person is actually kidnapped and the professors are just gonna say that they're faking the kidnapping, get back to class. All because of these stupid teens who want to play hooky on Zoom.

+31