There's A Casual Cruelty In TikTok's "Flipping The Camera" Trend—And It's Bordering On Cyberbullying

• A new TikTok trend has teens "flipping the camera" on the unassuming people recording their dance videos.

• Major influencers like Tinx have called out the trend's mean-spirited nature.

• Now, the responses to the videos have become a trend of their own.

Not all TikTok trends are created equally. Some are inoffensive and easily digestible (like, say, those inescapable Beez in Da Trap x What's Going On videos), while others mine personal relationships for a viral moment (for example, clips that test the Bird Theory). But every so often, a seemingly innocuous trend will set off an intense analytical discourse about its origins and necessity—and the sudden outbreak of "Flipping the Camera" videos has managed to just do that.

The clips, which began popping up at the end of last month, are primarily popular among teenagers (several of the most-liked videos are shot in school hallways or gymnasiums). At the beginning, they’ll feature a group of kids, enthusiastically doing the popular scuba dance, then a few seconds in, someone will double-tap the screen to flip the camera and catch the unfortunate cameraperson in an unflattering position (which is how you can find most people when their cameras are flipped on them unexpectedly).

The sole intention of these videos is to mock a person who has generously agreed to record the wider group's fun. What's implied is that the person holding the camera is someone who’s regularly excluded—who, for whatever trivial reason, hasn't been deemed worthy enough to dance with the rest of the batch. And the entire trend relies on the "joke" that the person holding the phone might not look 100% camera-ready when they've been unwillingly and unexpectedly made the focus of the entire clip.

For a few weeks, these videos became extremely popular without significant pushback. But lately, users are engaging with them more critically. In fact, in "Flipping the Camera" search results right now, you'll find more videos from people thoughtfully scrutinizing the trend instead of willfully participating. "It is one of the meanest video formats that I've seen on this app," shared the content creator Tinx. "It's straight up bullying." The many other "Flip the Camera" takedowns say something along the same lines. Because the videos invite the entire internet to participate in time-old schoolyard bullying, made even more harmful when the ridicule is focused on people who never consented to appear on camera in the first place.

"[The videos] take me back to that feeling [after being bullied]," shared the user Ashley B. "That mix of embarrassment, hope, and disappointment that nobody really apologizes for. The worst part is how it seems to be normal, because y'all are posting it with no repercussions. It's easy to humiliate someone for views."

While we don't know what sort of real-life disciplinary measures every participating teen is being met with to correct this behavior, what's promising is how shaming these videos have become a trend of its own. Which indicates there's a prevailing readiness to hold people accountable for casually dangerous cyberbullying. "Flipping the Camera" has resurfaced an unfortunately evergreen discussion about the negative effects of bullying. So now that the conversation about its harm has eclipsed the trend itself, there's far less social capital to be gained by participating in it…a surefire way for any trend to die.

This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com. Minor edits have been made by the Cosmo.ph editors.