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Upon DoorDash delivery Driver Levi Rose Henderson posted a video claiming one of her clients sexually assaulted her in October, sparking a firestorm of backlash.
Henderson Tik Tok She claimed that when she was delivering an order in Oswego, New York, she found the customer’s front door wide open and inside, a man on the couch with his pants and underwear pulled down to his ankles. Henderson has been dubbed the “Door Dash Girl,” and her video has garnered tens of millions of views, including some supportive and consoling responses to what she said she endured while working as a young woman. Many others on the platform have produced commentary videos questioning Henderson as an alleged victim, defending the customer, and spreading misinformation, and TikTok’s algorithm appears to be amplifying these “hot takes.” Then, after Henderson’s arrest on November 10, she was Charged With the illegal surveillance and publication of illegal surveillance images, a new wave of reactions has emerged. (Police rejected her claims of sexual assault.)
None of these responses came from Black content creator and journalist Myrlie LaRose.
But LaRose opened TikTok one day to find dozens of messages from friends and supporters upset by a video of her responding to the situation on behalf of a customer and DoorDash’s decision to terminate Henderson’s employment. (Henderson was fired for sharing a customer’s personal information online, DoorDash spokesman Jeff Rosenberg told WIRED.) As LaRose stared at the video in disbelief, for a split second, she second-guessed herself when she became nervous about the comments section “tearing her apart.”
“Did you film this?” I asked. “It’s my face, it’s my hair.”
“Then, within three or four seconds, I noticed something was wrong. It’s impossible to say this. I didn’t (want) to talk about it,” LaRose told WIRED. The video was created by artificial intelligence.
The situation highlights an increasingly common form of Digital blackfacesupported by the emergence of generative artificial intelligence. This term, popularized by the cultural critic Lauren Michelle JacksonDescribes various contemporary types of online “minstrel shows”. This seems like an overrepresentation of reaction GIFs, memes, TikToks, and other visual and textual media that use black images, vernacular, gesture, and culture. TikTok’s reliance on attention-grabbing short-form video content, along with apps like Sora 2, has made it much easier for non-Black creators and bot accounts to build racially stereotypical Black personas using deepfakes. This is also known as digital blackfishing.
Amid the DoorDash/Henderson controversy, TikTok users began noticing two videos in particular: one from a bot account and another from a real Black creator repeating the same script. They apparently adopted DARVO (Denial, Attack, Reverse Victim and Perpetrator) positions, which belittled the allegations made by Henderson and justified her termination: “I saw the original video that the DoorDash girl posted, and… I understand why DoorDash fired you and why you were banned from the app.” The videos go on to say: “As for the guy, I can see why everyone is saying he did it on purpose. But when you look at the original video, that couch is not in sight unless you angle yourself and look at it, and if you really want to smash it, he’s inside his house.” In a statement The Oswego Police Department said on Facebook that the man was “incapacitated and unconscious on his couch due to alcohol consumption,” and that the video was taken outside his home. Police also said they “determined that no sexual assault occurred.”