TikTok account filming women in Manchester without consent has been banned
Women are worried that the person filming them will return under a different username
Last updated 7th Apr 2022
A Tiktok account that had been filming women without their consent as they walk around Manchester City Centre has been banned by Tiktok due to 'multiple Community Guidelines violations'.
The account, named @banterbrigade69, amassed over 100,000 likes, nearly 20,000 followers and millions of views before being deleted.
In one video, which reached 2 million views, the unknown account user followed two women, filming them from behind as they walked around Manchester.
Another video zoomed in on a woman's breast as she walked past the anonymous Tik Toker.
These videos were captioned with the hashtags #sexy #lingerie #hot.
Comments of a sexual nature were made on these videos including: 'those are two pair of juicy legs', 'You gotta do the slow mo man', 'not the worst view' and '6/10'.
22-year-old Jessica, who has chosen to keep her surname anonymous to protect herself from internet bullying, told us that two videos of her were posted to the account at around 8pm last Friday, where she was filmed walking with a friend from a restaurant.
These videos of her and her friend have since been viewed over 2 million times.
She told us that it wasn't until the morning after her meal when she was swamped with messages from friends telling her she'd been filmed and 'creepy, crude and disturbing messages' from strangers that had found her and messaged her on social media, that she discovered what had happened.
"I'm going to be looking over my shoulder"
She said she then found the videos and saw thousands of comments where, "the vast majority were horrible, either being very creepy or calling us names."
Jessica also told us: "now I think I shouldn't have walked from the meal with her friend, I should have just got a taxi. Now, in the future I would not walk, especially on my own, around Manchester."
"I know it sounds a bit dramatic but I'm going to be looking over my shoulder a bit more."
"What he's done is not technically illegal"
Although the account has now been deleted, Jessica told us that accounts of a similar nature have been deleted before, but content like this is still being created, so she is worried another account will pop up.
On this issue, she told us: "A lot of the issues surrounding what happened to me comes down to how easy it is to be anonymous on the internet.
"If he had to put his name on his TikTok account, there's no way he would have filmed all of those girls."
She continued: "There's no repercussions from his the user's actions. All that happens is his account gets deleted, he then makes a new TikTok account, nothing bad will ever happen to him because this person is anonymous.
"And anyway, what's he going to get in trouble for? What he's done is not technically illegal."
"I feel unsafe going out"
Hannah Dooley, a victim of a similar voyeuristic crime, told us that since these videos have been posted, she feels more unsafe as a women in Manchester.
She said: "With the current spiking crisis we've got going on at the moment where things have advanced from people putting things in your drinks to injectables, this has now added to this fear women have going out.
"For me, I now feel unsafe going out. I don't want to go out, get recorded and get sexualised by men."
On why this account was banned, a spokesperson from TikTok told us: "We are deeply committed to fostering an inclusive and safe place for people to share their creativity.
"We do not tolerate sexual harassment on TikTok, and we have banned this account for violating our Community Guidelines."