By Irah Marie Tan
Julienne Ipapo, known for her inspirational content and stories of day-to-day life on TikTok, knows what it’s like to be bullied.
Behind the smile hides the experience of being tormented at a young age, likening the effect it does to a person to being stuck in a well.
“Having a life full of negativities is like a feeling of staying in a deep well,” she said.
Recognizing the effect of words to a person, she vows to spread kindness by choosing her words wisely, “to create a chain reaction of spreading love, and to combat the bad that lurks around in society and in the world”.
Photo from Instagram
Another TikTok content creator, Alec Cuenca has received his fair share of negativity from others. But instead of passing hurt, “I kill them with kindness”.
The motivational speaker and Small Talk! host said, “We rarely see that most of the kindness that we want to seek out from the world, we can actually create, and it will come back to us tenfold”.
“Bullying behavior damages the trust-based nature of the app (TikTok) by harming people’s confidence in themselves. We’re mindful that although in-app interactions may seem harmless to some, the impact of people’s online experiences doesn’t always disappear when they close the app,” Kudzi Chikumbu, TikTok US director of creator community, said in a statement.
Ipapo and Cuenca are two of the local content creators spreading kindness on TikTok as part of the platform’s #CreateKindness global campaign.
The #CreateKindness campaign aims to boost awareness about cyberbullying and promote kindness and inclusion online.
“[Its] mission is to spark kindness across the platform, bringing awareness and ensuring a positive environment,” said TikTok public policy head Kristoffer Rada.
It also serves as the launchpad for TikTok’s anti-bullying animated video series, which offers perspectives from different creators on how choosing kindness can help combat harmful behavior on the platform.
Everyone can be a part of this campaign by joining the #CreateKindness hashtag challenge. Post your own content on the platform that shows compassion for others, and leave comments on others’ videos to inspire them to spread kindness, too.
