A viral social media panic prompted a response from the Flagler County Sheriff s Office on April 23.
The social media posts have stated falsely that a group of men had declared April 24 a National Rape Day in a TikTok video and that penalties for sexual crimes would be suspended on that date.
There is no holiday that legalizes sexual assault, and independent fact checkers at multiplenewsoutlets have found no evidence that the supposed original video existed in the first place. The rumor-checking website Snopes found that rumors about such a day have circulated online for years.
The FCSO issued a news release April 23 noting that TikTok itself had denied finding any evidence of such a video, and stating that the FCSO s Domestic Homeland Security Unit is aware of the social media posts.