A UK policing leader has called on TikTok to investigate an Oxford Street “robbery” campaign that was supposedly orchestrated on the platform and led to shuttered stores and a number of arrests.
Donna Jones, the chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), said: “If I was a person in charge of governance of TikTok at the moment, I would be running an investigation to find out what has happened, particularly as there are very well known social media influencers on that particular social media channel who are linked directly to what happened in Oxford Street.”
She added: “They have a duty to play here to prevent criminal activity being orchestrated through their channels.”
Last Wednesday, the Metropolitan police arrested nine people and issued 34 dispersal orders after hundreds of teenagers gathered outside JD Sports on the capital’s busiest shopping street in apparent response to widely shared posts on Snapchat and TikTok, which urged users to take part in an “Oxford Circus JD robbery” at 3pm.
Jones also called on parents and guardians whose children may have taken part in the incident to explain to them that it was a criminal act. She said: “I hope that there were parents who were looking at that footage, particularly from Oxford Street last week, to see if their child or someone they are the guardian of was there.
“If they were, I hope multiple conversations have been had with those young people to explain to them how its criminal, and how it must not be repeated. If it is repeated, then it’s quite right that there should be formal criminal sanctions taken against them.”
She said parents who felt they could not control their children was “exactly why we’re having this social breakdown”.
Jones also said she was aware of other “worrying” incidents that were organised on TikTok, with one leading to children being hospitalised.
“In Southampton over the weekend, young people aged between 15 and 17 decided to challenge each other to take a paracetamol overdose to see who could get hospitalised, and who could be hospitalised the longest.
“The person who remained in hospital for the most hours being the person who won said challenge. And of course this is incredibly worrying. It is putting young people’s lives at danger,” she said.
Last Thursday, police in Southend-on-Sea were given new powers to issue dispersal orders that would ban anyone suspected of acting antisocially due to fears of a TikTok-organised gathering. Those who did not comply could be arrested.
According to Jones, who was elected as chair of the APCC last month, a planned incident in Bexleyheath, south-east London, was successfully intercepted by the Met.
The home secretary, Suella Braverman, called on those responsible for the Oxford Street incident to be “hunted down and locked up”. On Twitter, which is now known as X, Braverman said: “We cannot allow the kind of lawlessness seen in some American cities to come to the streets of the UK. The police have my full backing to do whatever necessary to ensure public order.”
She added: “Those responsible must be hunted down and locked up. I expect nothing less from the Met and have requested a full incident report.”
TikTok has denied responsibility for the Oxford Street “robbery” campaign. A spokesperson said: “We have seen no evidence to support these claims, and we have zero tolerance for content facilitating or encouraging criminal activities.
“We have over 40,000 safety professionals dedicated to keeping TikTok safe. If we find content of this nature, we remove it and actively engage with law enforcement on these issues.”
