In April 2023, a concerning trend emerged on TikTok called ‘gnome hunting’. While at face value, the trend depicted users harmlessly pretending to hunt for gnomes, the trend was steeped in antisemitism. In this context, gnomes served as coded references to Jewish people, and gnome hunting referred to hunting for Jews. Gnome hunting followed other contemporary trends of online antisemitic dog whistles such as #thenoticing and the echo. The coded meaning of gnome hunting allowed for its rapid growth, due to participation from TikTok users who were unaware of its violent, antisemitic connotations. We identified gnome hunting TikToks with over 1.7 million views, indicating that this hateful trend reached an audience far beyond niche extremist communities.
It is not unusual for TikTok users to collectively participate in an absurdist meme of the month. Millions of users partook in the ‘Woodchuck Revolution’ trend in 2021, which manifested complicated plotlines and even accompanying musical compositions. In late 2022, the app was inundated with memes describing a made-up economic system using a currency called ‘doubloons’. Given this context, it is unsurprising that TikTok users jumped at the chance to participate in the gnome hunting meme without understanding its hateful message. Some creators have since removed their original gnome hunting videos and apologised for unwittingly participating in a hateful trend.
Read more at the Global Network on Extremism and Technology
