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Police action after a school massacre in Oxford, Michigan, on November 30th
Photo: Todd Mcinturf / dpa
Closed schools, heightened police presence, FBI investigations and a reaction from the White House: an alleged call for firearms attacks in schools on the Tiktok video platform sparked concerned reactions in the United States on Friday. The US Department of Homeland Security said there was no evidence of "specific, credible threats" to schools, but called for vigilance. Some schools were closed on Friday. Others informed parents of the rumors and announced additional police patrols.
"There is information circulating that today could be a day of attacks on schools," wrote a school in the capital Washington to parents.
"The administration and the police are informed and are monitoring the situation." A school district in the state of Pennsylvania informed parents that the police presence at school buildings would be increased, even if the "threat" was not classified as "credible".
Even the press spokeswoman for US President Joe Biden felt compelled to comment: "The White House and the federal police authorities are carefully monitoring threats of violence in schools that circulate on social networks," wrote Jen Psaki on Twitter.
"We know that a number of schools across the country are closing today and that some parents are leaving their children at home."
"The FBI takes all potential threats seriously," said the US Federal Police meanwhile. "We work with our police partners to establish the credibility of threats."
However, it was initially unclear where the threat was supposed to come from. Tiktok said there was no evidence that such threats came from the platform or were spread on Tiktok. "We searched in depth for content that advertises violence in schools today, but we still haven't found anything," wrote the video platform on Twitter, which is particularly popular with adolescents and young adults. "What we find are videos in which this rumor is discussed." Tiktok also accused the media of reporting on the basis of rumors about an alleged trend, for the existence of which there was no evidence. That could encourage people to cause real damage.
In the USA there are repeated firearms attacks in schools or even school massacres with many deaths.
It was only at the end of November that a 15-year-old shot dead four classmates at a school in the state of Michigan.
As a result, there were fears of copycat criminals.
jso / AFP
