Iana Murray
Oct 30, 2020
TikTok
Have you ever been misinterpreted? Well, this TikTok user experienced that in possibly the worst way imaginable.
TikTok user Julia Keith was accidentally embraced by Trump supporters after she posted a video of herself mockingly mimicking the president’s dancing. At a rally in Florida earlier this month, he was spotted grooving awkwardly to the Village People’s ‘Y.M.C.A.’.
As the video went viral, conservatives flocked to Keith’s comments, believing that her dance was intended as a pro-Trump trend.
"I was just making people laugh,” she told Buzzfeed News. “I don't want to be a MAGA icon.”
Things only continued to spiral further. TikTok’s algorithm picked up on all the MAGA users watching Keith’s video, which led the platform to direct even more conservatives to it.
Her comment section was almost universally filled with Trump campaign sentiments like “Trump 2020” and “That’s my president”. To Keith’s horror, she also discovered that her video was being shared on Facebook among older conservatives.
The tipping point came when Ivanka Trump shared the video on Twitter.
Keith then realised that she had to set the record straight on the real message of the video, worried that she may have unintentionally influenced some people’s political views:
I can't even fathom that I would have a hand in this election, and that people see [my video] and thinking, 'Oh he's a great guy.’ How many people did I cause to vote? But also, who would vote based on a video?
After Ivanka’s tweet, Keith posted a follow-up video showing her disgust at accidentally becoming a “MAGA icon”. To top it all off, she ended the TikTok with a photo of Joe Biden to really make it clear who she supports.
Keith continues to make fun of Trump’s dance moves but has also used her newfound platform to educate viewers on the election.
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