Why TikTok's chaotic 'kickbacks' took off with young people starved for company
CNN
"Adrian's kickback," a hashtag that's since been viewed more than 352 million times on TikTok, inspired a slew of copycat parties, most recently in Seattle, where police broke up a gathering on Alki Beach known online as the "Washington kickback."
That's what a 17-year-old named Adrian and his friends were planning for his birthday -- a "kickback," or a casual get-together on Huntington Beach. But once TikTok got hold of the invitation to the beachside, fire-lit party, the kickback devolved into a massive mob of partygoers, some of whom set off fireworks in the streets of southern California or got arrested for unlawful assembly. In other words -- it was the stuff of not-quite-post-pandemic party legend.President Joe Biden on Sunday delivers his first commencement address of the 2024 season at Morehouse College, where the president may for the first time in months have to confront the angst that’s been percolating on college campuses nationwide toward his administration’s policies on the Israel-Hamas war.
Arab and Palestinian Americans left a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday night frustrated they did not have a clear understanding of how the Biden administration might act upon their concerns as the Israel-Hamas war devastates the civilian population in Gaza, participants told CNN.