Why are People Boycotting Birthday Messages from African Men on TikTok?

Scrolling through TikTok, you may have already seen videos of a group of young topless African men sending personalized messages on TikTok.

Each video from the account Niudance.com garners thousands of views as more users pay up to have dozen or so men dance and sing for a celebrity or a character.

These videos used to be an even greater hit years before, but recent information on how the videos are made sheds a harsher light on the business behind these personalized messages.

Boycott Niudance: Cause

Calls to boycott the TikTok account uploading personalized messages from African men have been going around for some time, but have only gained more attention in the last months.

The reason for the boycott was from a BBC documentary, "Racism for Sale," showing the dark under-dealings in Africa where residents are being forced to perform for the Chinese audience, saying things like "I am a black monster and my IQ is low."

Testimonies from the abused locals also indicate they were abused and starved if they did not obey the instructions from the contractor.

While the documentary has been mainly about the trend going around Chinese social media back in 2020, users noted several similarities to how the operators work with the Niudance videos.

Among these are the men, and sometimes women, being instructed by a person off-camera to speak to the camera in English, a language all of them seem to not understand at all.

It does not help that the people in the Niudance video were never identified or have been shown to receive payments from all the message requests via TikTok or Niudance's website.

No social media accounts aside from Niudance and Niudance-affiliated platforms have been shown.

Boycott Niudance: The Movement

While calls to boycott Niudance have been spreading across respective communities on X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok, operations on the account seem unaffected.

Recent videos from its TikTok account, with 210,600 followers, still show thousands of likes and views.

There are also no reports of any intervention from local authorities amid concerns for the people featured on the video.

Confirmation if the business is legitimate is a mystery, as well.

As of writing, several accounts are grouping efforts to put a stop to people buying its services until a genuine proof that the African men are actually being paid.