How dangerous it is to do dances on TikTok

After the Netflix docu ‘Can I tell you a secret’ about how dangerous the combination of Instagram and curiosity can be, another docu about the dangers of social media is being released on Netflix this week. This time it’s about TikTok. I try to keep up with TikTok, but I’m actually just a bit too old for it. Luckily, I have my younger sister, who usually sends me the funniest videos, so I don’t have to scroll endlessly myself. It sometimes just feels like a kind of closed community of young people, one that I clearly no longer belong to.

That it can indeed be a closed community is clearly shown by the docuseries ‘Dancing for the devil’. This docu tells the story of a large group of ambitious dancers who gained a huge reach (and a lot of views) through TikTok. The dancers received so much attention because of the dances they performed on the social platform that they were approached by an agency with the offer to take over their management. What followed was a large amount of misery.

The management turned out to have no good intentions for them at all. Instead of helping them build their careers, they were held captive in a real cult. The manager, who is also the leader of a church known as a cult, ensured that the dancers gradually became isolated and had no contact with their old environment. Friends and family were excluded and blocked in every possible way. We can all follow the consequences of this, how it ended for the victims and their families, and whether the cult leader has been safely locked away, starting May 29 on Netflix.