TikTok Users’ Kobe Bryant Tributes Get Denounced For Going Too Far
Image via DFree / Shutterstock.com
Dedications around the world have poured in to commemorate Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who faced a tragic death after the helicopter he was on crashed near Calabasas, California. Its pilot and seven other passengers, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, did not survive the accident.
Naturally, the wave made its way to one of the internet’s trendiest social networks right now, TikTok. Users have created short clips to crystallize the basketball star’s memory in their own inventive ways. However, some think the performers have gone overboard or are simply milking Bryant’s demise, according to a report by Insider.
Tributes on the platform include videos of users mimicking Bryant or his daughter, disproved footage of the helicopter crash, and montages of the Bryant family at the games. Several of the clips imagine the man in heaven.
Perhaps more concerning is the dissemination of rumors about how Bryant died. Some users proclaimed that Bryant’s body was found embracing his daughter, but this is false.
While these tributes might be well-intentioned, they also have their skeptics. Los Angeles-based artist Balou Royal, a TikTok user himself, said some of the dedications fail to consider the feelings of those in mourning.
“I’ve seen some people take it a little too far,” he said in a statement via Insider. “As far as touching on him [Bryant] being in heaven… It wasn’t even 12 hours into his death and people [were] already emulating him being dead.”
Twitter users are also berating three teenagers who impersonated the catastrophic crash. The original clip was taken down, but was shortly reuploaded. One Twitter user pointed out that the footage’s creator was also “mocking the fact he is getting heat for it.”
Twitttttteerrrr I’m scrolling through tiktok and what the actuallllyyyyy FUCKKKKK IS THISSSS 😡😡 pic.twitter.com/xy6vLwN7vh
— Key Ting 🏳️🌈 (@FlexxTwin) January 27, 2020
these tiktok people using Kobe Bryant’s passing for clout is really disrespect pic.twitter.com/ApZkalcKoa
— ok sis (@ChanceOfShade) January 26, 2020
[via Insider, videos via various sources, cover image via DFree / Shutterstock.com]
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