Woman posts video of man in gym 'staring at her', then deletes it and apologises
A TikTok content creator realised she may have acted under false assumptions when she posted a video of a man and claimed that he was staring at her in the gym.
When an anonymous account responded to the video and said the man was actually watching an episode of Mr Bean on a TV above her, she duly deleted the video and apologised.
The TikToker, who goes by Michelle Lim, uploaded the video on Jan 19. It appeared to be recorded with a phone placed behind a gym machine and aimed at a man in a white t-shirt.
Captions in the video said she recorded the video to confirm her suspicions as the man "kept staring at my direction", and included the hashtag "#gymcreeps".
"Watch how he slowly checks out the girl," read one line, as the man paced around the gym, pausing for a moment to look in her direction.
It was not clear what exactly the man was looking at, however.
An anonymous TikTok account, @dontanyhowrecord, then responded to Lim's video. The sole video on the account claimed via captioning that the person who was allegedly "staring" at Ms Lim was watching an episode of Mr Bean.
The response video showed a TV located above the machine that Ms Lim was using while she recorded her video. A white circle marked where her camera had likely been placed.
Woman turns off comments on all videos, then apologises
Online commenters came to the defence of the man, whose face was fully visible in the video.
Realising her faux pas, Ms Lim turned off comments on all of her videos and published a statement on the matter on Jan 20.
Her statement detailed her account of what happened in the gym, why she uploaded the video, and an apology.
She explained that she uploaded the video to highlight that “everyone should feel safe in a public space that is commonly dominated by males. And females should be free to choose their outfits based on their likes and preferences and shouldn't be judged for it".
However, she conceded there was "no concrete evidence" to show that the man was staring at her, and acknowledged the potential harm her video could have caused to the man.
"I'm sorry to the guy I've posted in the video. Also, I don't have your contact. Please reach out to me so I can apologise to you personally too," she wrote.
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