'Orbeez Challenge' shootings and the disputed attribution

2022

In spring 2022 a wave of incidents saw people, mostly teenagers, shoot strangers with water-bead gel blasters, causing welts, eye injuries and several school lockdowns. Arrests followed across the United States. Although police and press consistently blamed a TikTok 'Orbeez Challenge', reporting found no such challenge actually present on the platform, making this a case where real harm was attached to a disputed origin story.