Influencer forced to apologise after 'insensitive' video 'romanticising' police brutality

A TikTok user has apologised for posting a video captioned 'POV: I was killed by a cop who got scared and accidentally fired. Now he's raising my son and I watch over them.'

Fictional point-of-view style videos of people playing out outlandish scenarios have long been popular on the app.

Elijah Fang acknowledged that the video was "harmful" and "inappropriate", but pointed out that it had been deleted "months ago".

Screenshots from the video recently sparked outrage on Twitter.

In Fang's first (sort of) apology video, she said:

In light of everything that's been going on and in light of things that have been happening for centuries before I even understood the context of the video I was making I realised that it wasn't appropriate and honestly the reason people can't find it is because I took it down before it even got on to Twitter. 

I've already realised that it was a stupid video which is why it's not up any more. So this isn't even an apology. It's a 'you guys are here late'. 

You guys have a right to be upset about that video, I was upset about that video, especially in lieu of everything that's been going on, which is why I took it down. But for people who are just finding it on Twitter, I understand just how harmful that message can be and that is not my intent. That is not the message I want to spread. 

She later posted a second video, in which she said unequivocally that she was sorry.

Responding to a TikToker who asked "what the hell was the intent in the first place?", Fang said:

I think at the time I had just wanted to make a point of view that was, not positive, but... I don't want to say it was positive because obviously someone's son dying is not positive, but something with positivity in it. 

Once again, that is why I took the video down, once I realised and I educated myself, months ago. 

And I know I said I wasn't going to make this an apology video but I really am sorry to anyone who has been hurt by this video that has been resurfacing. That is not how I think or what I represent. 

Fang, who is 20 years old, has more than 50,000 followers on TikTok.

She deleted the POV video "6-7 months ago" according to her TikTok bio.