‍Welcome to Parental Advisory, where we track and demystify internet trends—so you don’t have to. 

There has been one word on everyone’s lips for the past week on TikTok: mascara. 

Confusingly, the word was trending in two different contexts, only one of which was makeup-related. In the first situation, beauty guru Mikayla Nogueira was accused of using glue-on false eyelashes to promote L’Oreal’s Telescopic Life mascara. While fans felt misled, others explained that there were more serious concerns regarding FTC compliance and false advertising to consider as well. After a week-long hiatus, Nogueira has returned to social media, but has not yet acknowledged the controversy. 

The second Mascaragate was related to Julia Fox, an actress and influencer best known for her breakout role in 2019’s Uncut Gems, who found herself being accused of lacking sympathy for victims of sexual assault. These accusations were made after she commented “Idk why but I don’t feel bad for u lol” on a video in which the user said, “I gave this one girl mascara one time and it must’ve been so good that she decided her and her friend should both try it without my consent.” For the uninitiated, “mascara” in this context refers to the user’s genitalia—he was using the video to disclose sexual assault he had experienced. 

Fox has since apologized, but many came to her defense and argued that people cannot be expected to be familiar with all of the coded language used on TikTok. Common words like “died” are switched out for new inventions like “unalived” in an effort to bypass TikTok’s filters, but some, including experts, worry that avoiding the clear discussion of these topics only further contributes to their stigmatization. It’s not clear how much these words are actually censored by TikTok—searches for “dead,” “murder,” and “SA” (for “sexual assault”) return results, but searches for “suicide” and “rape” return messages reminding users they’re not alone and that help is available. Far more innocuous terms like “lesbian” have also received the TikTok treatment—becoming “le$bean,” pronounced “le-dollar-bean”—though they don’t appear to be censored at all. 

TikTok’s Community Guidelines prohibit content that “depicts, normalizes, promotes, or glorifies” self-harm, suicide, or non-consensual sexual acts or sexual violence, but the guidelines do make allowances for content that would be in the public interest, such as that with educational or artistic value. The guidelines explain that TikTok may choose not to recommend some content for users' For You feeds in the interest of safety, which is where many creators feel the problem lies—that their content is allowed on the platform, but is being “suppressed,” from being pushed to For You feeds, the primary way TikTok users see new videos.

Popular streamer apologizes after watching AI-generated porn of female streamers

Twitch streamer Artioc posted a tearful apology video after fans noticed during one of his livestreams that he was watching deepfake pornography of two fellow streamers. Deepfakes are generated by artificial intelligence, and involve using existing footage and imagery of a real person and generating realistic-looking videos of them. The most concerning use of this technology is in porngraphy, since it results in realistic looking pornographic material of a subject who did not consent to appearing in explicit content. One of the streamers, QTCinderella, has shared her intentions to sue the website Atrioc was using.

The site in question has since been scrubbed of deepfaked videos of popular female streamers, according to Vice, with the site’s owner uploading a lengthy apology describing the videos as “immoral” and promising “you will not see me pop up again.” 

YouTuber’s act of kindness highlights failures of U.S. healthcare system

MrBeast, a 24-year-old YouTuber whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is known for expensive and elaborate stunts, the most recent of which involved paying for 1,000 people’s cataract surgeries. In addition to covering the cost of the procedures, he handed out gifts to the patients, including a Tesla. While the gesture seems heartwarming on its face—helping people access a medical procedure they couldn’t otherwise afford is a decent act—for many, it highlighted just how broken U.S. healthcare infrastructure is. Finances were all that stood between these 1,000 people and their ability to see. Donaldson himself seemingly agreed, tweeting after the video went viral, “I don’t understand why curable blindness is a thing. Why don’t governments step in and help? Even if you’re thinking purely from a financial standpoint it’s hard to see how they don’t roi [sic] on taxes from people being able to work again.” The video also raised concerns around performing charity for social media, as opposed to doing good things for their own sake, with Donaldson’s supporters defending his videos by arguing that without the money brought in by YouTube views, Donaldson would not be able to do philanthropic things like this.