? The age of surveillance has reached new heights in the form of TikTok detectives. Private investigators are experiencing newfound fame through turning their cases into content, feeding a growing appetite online for real-time surveillance and public shaming, according to Wired.

TikTok storytimes are taking a turn into true-crime style surveillance. From cheating suspicions to background checks, people’s lives are going viral through the work of private investigators in the name of reassuring their clients. Private investigator Stephanie A. — who’s behind Your Fav Investigator on TikTok — has garnered mns of views posting videos as she monitors people from afar and casually narrates their actions along with the clients’ suspicions. As with all investigative content, the people in her videos remain anonymous — but that doesn’t take away from the drama.

Infidelity content drives the trend, with PIs such as Lisa Allen-Stell, who runs Pink LadyInvestigations, and Cassie Crofts, who runs Venus Investigations, dedicating their content towards marital suspicions. Their content follows them surveilling individuals accused of having an affair.

Online policing has become a staple in internet culture. The rising trend is fueling the growing “name and shame” internet fire — and is exacerbating cyberbullying. While the PIs interviewed by Wired were all licensed and kept their cases anonymous, similar accounts have been surfacing that don’t extend the same courtesy of anonymity. To add fuel to the fire, some avid content consumers have taken it upon themselves to follow-up on certain cases themselves.

The witchhunt: One Reddit user who once happened to be on the receiving end of the digital investigation craze shared his experience online, noting that public exposure led to “being torn down by hundreds of thousands of people,” impacting job prospects alongside other personal matters. Guilty or not, the fact of the matter is that the general affairs of private individuals are being unlawfully showcased to global audiences, left to the judgement of a jury of digital peers hungry for real-time entertainment.

Big Brother has arrived. The virality of these private investigation videos seems to be an extension of a pre-existing intrigue with strangers’ online lives. While these videos are meant to serve dopamine-driven content for online audiences akin to true-crime shows, they have raised major privacy concerns and exacerbated the threat of digital surveillance.

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