‘Why I spent my college tuition on the Big Tribal Game’

A quick look at Zara’s transactions shows she’s spent thousands of dollars on TikTok.

Zara, not her real name, is in her 20s, lives in the US and is of Somali origin. She is obsessed with the platform’s live battle feature – which saw the two influencers verbally spar and at times taunt each other as they solicited money from their followers to win the war.

She later discovered the dark side of these games and shared her story with BBC World Service.

The battles are popular with TikTok users around the world but the Somali game’s premise is different as influencers on both sides often represent a Somali clan and sometimes hurl insults that include can become toxic.

It’s called the Big Tribal Game, and tens of thousands of people regularly tune in as influencers play rap music praising their clan’s morality, with lyrics praising their bravery and beauty. their people.

An event we watched on a Saturday night in October is a good example: featuring two influencers on a split screen. About 50,000 people followed us.

Making “battles” largely means encouraging viewers to give players more gifts than they need to win each five-minute round.

The winner is the influencer who has received the most gifts – and the loser will then congratulate their opponent by admitting their clan is stronger that night.

Sometimes events are advertised online months in advance.

Influencers, often based in the United States and Europe, go live before the match starts, attracting crowds.

At the start, arguments sometimes continue, but in-game conversation can be quite mundane. This action is between donors, trying to outspend each other.

There’s a whole new language, a digital currency, and many confusing rules that are part of the game, adding a surreal quality to the events.

We’ve seen some of the highest-value items given away, such as the “TikTok universe”, worth more than $500 (£385) and equivalent to almost 50,000 TikTok coins. It evokes animations of people dancing to a catchy song.

Slightly cheaper at $400 (£308) and a fan favorite is the lion, which roars loudly as it runs across the screen. Or there’s a more gentle whale swimming out of an underwater tunnel.

Some giveaways apply filters to the influencer’s face like cowboy hats and mustaches, red berets, or seasonal pumpkin heads.

Zara says she started playing because she wanted to protect her family’s pride.

It was “exciting” and “my side always won,” she recalls.

But Zara spent more than $7,000 to pay for college tuition on this game.

“My parents, if they found out I spent a lot of money on TikTok, they would be very sad – they wouldn’t [be] happy – but somehow it’s like an addiction.”

She also questioned why she gave away her hard-earned money to influential people, who very rarely show gratitude.

But as she was pulled deeper into this world, she experienced something far more sinister.

We have seen evidence that a male influencer in the US has insulted female TikTokers and made threats against them – threatening to post sexually explicit images of them.

Zara says it happens a lot: “They find out who you are, they take your family pictures, your pictures and they say, ‘I’m going to expose you.'”

She said that influential men in America did this to her and she was so scared and worried her family would see an edited photo that he threatened to share, leaving her unable to sleep. at night.

“Imagine your family seeing pictures of you naked. They don’t know it’s Photoshop.”

When Zara reported the account to TikTok, she said they took no action.

This influencer goes by the name Hussein Kibray online and has over 200,000 followers. He regularly participates in games.

Zara believes other women have been threatened in this way but we have not seen Photoshopped images of her – or other women – shared publicly by him.

We asked him about his behavior but he did not respond to our messages.

After the BBC contacted TikTok about Kibray’s account, the social media platform responded that it had now banned them for violating its policies on adult sexual and physical abuse.

In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson said: “We prioritize the safety of our community with some of the industry’s strongest streaming requirements, including specific policies for content. Using Match, customizable viewer safety tools and only allowing people over 18 to stream or send gifts. .”

Live games on TikTok are based on confrontation and sometimes at least the appearance of aggression – whether staged or authentic. Matches can get heated as influential people debate the strength of different clans.

Clan identity is deeply ingrained in Somali society and politics but it can be a sensitive subject. The tribes fought against each other in the Somali civil war that began after longtime ruler Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991 and the worst fighting continued until 2001.

Sometimes influential people return to the civil war – who won, what happened – and insult their ancestors, even boasting about having killed their opponents.

Many people worry that games are also contributing to a toxic online environment. TikTok told us that live content must comply with the community guidelines applicable on their platform.

Away from the Great Tribal Games arena, there are deep concerns at the clan level and hate speech on social media platforms spread by influential Somali accounts, often based abroad.

Moustafa Ahmad, a security researcher focusing on the Horn of Africa, thinks that’s somewhat ironic.

“People who left their countries and built their lives in the West because of the conflicts, because of the tensions they left behind, are becoming part of [the] That cycle is perpetuating violence and tension between communities in the region,” he said.

And the Great Tribal Games are proving popular in Somalia – discussed in many teahouses in the capital, Mogadishu, and in the upper echelons of society.

“Sometimes you will see some politicians and elders talking,” said influencer Bilaal Bulshawi, who has nearly two million followers and is famous for his fun videos and online challenges. and joke about how their clan won the game last night. That’s not something we should joke about.” .

Based in Somalia, unlike many TikTok battle participants, he said he was in a game when it started trending but it wasn’t a clan battle planned in advance.

He has watched the spending on these events increase and suggested that the money could be used to help the country.

“It is a shame to spend so much money knowing Somalia is suffering and begging the world for help,” he said.

If you do some basic calculations, you’ll probably find influencers are pocketing thousands of dollars in the highest profile matches.

However, the reality is perhaps less impressive, said Crystal Abidin, founder of the TikTok Cultural Studies network and a professor of Internet studies at Curtin University in Australia.

She has not researched the “battles” in Somalia but said influential people often create the illusion of enormous wealth.

“A lot of people watching had the impression that all the shiny coins and graphics running across the screen showed that there was a lot of cash flow going straight into the pockets of influencers,” Professor Abidin said.

“And really, the exact number, the volume or the percentage breakdown is really quite vague.”

She said from her research elsewhere, there are costs that are not visible: the platform takes a cut, sometimes there are people who manage creators, sometimes there is seed money to create the impression that Giving is organic.

We know that for many participants in the Big Tribal Games, the love and care is real.

These events are anticipated for months and they’re attracting high levels of engagement – but Zara understands why some “gift givers” are desperate to pull out.