TikTok Puts The Kibosh On ‘Devious Lick’ Challenge

TikTok is cracking down on the Devious Lick challenge, a viral trend that encourages students to pilfer items from their schools, including soap dispensers, exit signs, and classroom telephones.

People reports that the trend, also known as ‘Diabolical Licks’ or ‘Dastardly Licks’, originated in early September when TikToker Jugg4Elias posted a video showcasing a stolen box of disposable masks. The video had garnered 345,800 views before being removed by TikTok on Monday, and the Jugg4Elias account is no longer active.

People notes that high schools across the country — from Sunlake High School in Florida to Hamilton High School in Arizona — have taken to social media to discourage students from participating, noting that it could result in serious school consequences or even arrests. TikTok confirmed to People that it has taken action as well.

“We expect our community to stay safe and create responsibly, and we do not allow content that promotes or enables criminal activities,” the company said. “We are removing this content and redirecting hashtags and search results to our Community Guidelines to discourage such behavior.”

The Devious Lick crackdown arrives after the emergence of another potentially dangerous trend last month called the Milk Crate Challenge. That challenge, which saw users attempting to scale piles of plastic grocery-store milk crates, met a similar fate, with TikTok blocking the hashtag and removing an undisclosed number of videos.