I’ve been following this whole situation on the Gold Coast for a few weeks now, and it’s so interesting how quickly social media can stir up fear. There were a few bodies found across different parts of the Coast in late July, and while that’s definitely unsettling, police were clear from the start that the deaths weren’t suspicious or connected in any way. But that didn’t stop a bunch of TikToks and posts from going viral, with some people even claiming there was a serial killer on the loose. What’s crazy is how fast people started to believe these TikToks (some of them coming from creators with no actual knowledge of the cases) over what the police were officially saying. It got to the point where QLD Police had to comment directly on social media to shut it down and reassure everyone that there’s no threat to the public. It really shows how powerful, and sometimes misleading, social media can be. Just because something’s gone viral doesn’t mean it’s reliable, and sometimes it spreads panic when there’s really no need for it.