For Laura Tigeleiro, opening TikTok had become an unpleasant routine. The Staten Island creator, who has multiple sclerosis, was regularly targeted by cruel comments about the appearance of one of her eyes, which has been affected by the condition.
Then, one day, her phone filled with notifications. A video she had posted received more than 15,000 supportive comments. At first, she had no idea what was happening. She later discovered that she had become the target of the Kindness Mob, a TikTok community that uses coordinated positivity to counter online harassment.
The project was launched in 2023 by Tyler Brickley, a digital marketer who wanted to turn the mechanics of online trolling in the opposite direction. Instead of directing a crowd toward someone with insults, Brickley directs his followers toward people experiencing bullying or being overlooked and asks them to fill their comment sections with encouragement.
What began as an idea involving 10 people has grown into a community of around 500,000 followers. Brickley says he has organised about 350 “mobs”, with some campaigns generating thousands of comments and millions of views. The movement has also helped some of the people it targets gain followers, build communities and attract new opportunities.
Tigeleiro was one example. Following the campaign, she gained enough followers and engagement for TikTok to begin paying her. She says the additional income helped her family purchase a new car.
When kindness spreads
The idea behind the Kindness Mob connects with research into social contagion — the way behaviours can spread through social networks. Yale professor Nicholas Christakis has studied how positive actions can influence people beyond the original interaction, creating chains of behaviour that extend through a community.
Christakis argues that social media does not simply reflect human cruelty. People are also capable of cooperation, friendship and generosity, but online platforms can amplify conflict through anonymity and engagement-driven algorithms.
Research associated with Christakis and colleagues has found that cooperative behaviour can spread through social networks, meaning that one person’s positive action can influence the behaviour of others who were never directly involved in the original interaction.
Brickley’s approach applies that principle to online harassment by replacing the crowd dynamics of trolling with coordinated encouragement.
The impact can extend beyond the person being targeted. Participants have told Brickley that repeatedly taking part in kindness campaigns has changed how they view online interactions. The movement’s official philosophy is essentially simple: kindness should not be reserved for people we already agree with or like.
The cost of running a kindness army
The project has not been without consequences for Brickley himself. As the Kindness Mob grew rapidly, so did the number of people asking for help.
Followers nominate dozens of potential targets every day, while Brickley usually selects only one person for the daily campaign. That means many people who are experiencing online abuse cannot be included.
The emotional burden eventually became overwhelming, and Brickley took several months away from the project. He has since shared some of the organisational work with volunteers and reframed the purpose of each campaign: rather than trying to solve every case, the group focuses on one person at a time.
Alice Marwick, a researcher who studies internet culture, notes that online movements built around individual personalities can face burnout and often struggle to maintain momentum. She says changing online behaviour will ultimately require broader changes in social norms, rather than relying solely on algorithms or individual campaigns.
Brickley experienced the impact of his own community firsthand after undergoing back surgery. While recovering, his wife secretly organised a Kindness Mob for him. When he opened his phone, he found hundreds of supportive comments from strangers.
He says the experience reminded him why he started the project in the first place.
The Kindness Mob may not provide a solution to online harassment on its own, but it demonstrates how the same tools that allow negativity to spread — coordination, visibility and collective action — can also be used to amplify something very different.
For Brickley, that is the point. “Kindness for everyone always” has become more than a slogan; it is the principle behind an experiment in whether compassion can spread online as quickly as cruelty.
