TikTok is overrun by amateur sleuths – so which clues should I leave in case I go missing? | Michael Sun

Everyone from awkward boyfriends to supposedly nefarious fiances are being held to account. The jurors? A million deranged zoomers

If I was a more dedicated podcast listener, I am certain I would be a nutter for true crime, a genre with which I share many core values: a zeal for prying into the lives of total strangers, a generally melodramatic way of talking, an overactive imagination which crafts grand, paranoid narratives from the most quotidian of events. (These are also the traits of anyone who did theatre in high school.)

TikTok, apparently, agrees. When Serial exploded the genre in 2014, the power of amateur sleuths - and the sway they possessed over the real-world results of justice - was still a novelty. Now, nearly a decade on, new mysteries sweep through TikTok at dizzying pace. Everyone from awkward boyfriends to supposedly nefarious fiances are held to account on the platform by users conducting their own frenzied investigations, hoping to catch their suspects cheating, philandering and premeditating. The jurors: a million deranged zoomers. The tone: nothing short of fever pitch - the type that accompanies all good conspiracy theories.