There is a very disturbing explanation behind why April 24 is trending on TikTok. The hashtag #april24 has over 31 million views and a thousand videos on TikTok.

April 24 trend on TikTok

This is all because April 24 was unofficially declared “National Rape Day” after six men made a TikTok video back in 2021 encouraging other people to commit sexual assaults on this day. The trend was a counter-effort to negate April as Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. The idea behind inviting people to participate in sexual crimes on “National Rape Day” is the false notion that the crimes were legal on April 24.

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In a statement to USA Today, TikTok said that they could not find the original video behind this disturbing trend. “Keeping our community safe is our priority, and we do not tolerate content that promotes or glorifies non-consensual sexual acts including rape and sexual assault,” a TikTok spokesperson wrote in an email at the time to USA Today. “While we have not found evidence on our platform of any videos related to this subject, our safety team is remaining vigilant and we will remove content that violates our policies.”

Meanwhile, the popularity of the trend has led to hundreds of other TikToker creating videos. A few of these reaction videos attempted to offer safety advice to women by telling them to exercise caution and stay at home on April 24. Women were also told to travel in groups or carry self-defense weapons to reduce the risk of such crimes. Other videos warned people against falling for such falsehoods and committing such crimes.

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Millions of people on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter have reacted to this trend. More than 1,000 Facebook postings and over 50 Instagram posts regarding “National Rape Day” had been made this week alone.