Tyler Brickley, a digital marketer from Kansas City, Missouri, operates "The Kindness Mob," a TikTok-based initiative with approximately 500,000 followers dedicated to countering online harassment. The group, founded in 2023, identifies individuals experiencing cyberbullying and encourages its members to flood their accounts with supportive and complimentary comments. According to Brickley, the group has conducted approximately 350 to 400 such campaigns to date.
The initiative began as a way to use the coordination and anonymity typical of online harassment for benevolent purposes. Brickley stated he realized that many negative commenters are following a crowd, prompting him to organize a group to "tip the scales" with positivity. The group attempts to keep its efforts secret from the targets, though recipients often discover the source of the sudden shift in their comment sections.
One recipient, Kahri Salyars of King George, Virginia, reported receiving hundreds of insults on a weight-loss video in March before the Kindness Mob intervened. Another recipient, Laura Tigeleiro of Staten Island, New York, who has multiple sclerosis, saw a video receive over 15,000 positive comments following the group's involvement. Brickley reported that while some videos receive an average of 1,000 comments, successful campaigns can generate tens of thousands of comments and millions of views.
The movement highlights the psychological concept of social contagion, where researchers like Yale University Professor Nicholas Christakis suggest that spreading positive behavior can influence third parties who did not interact with the original group. However, the scale of the effort has led to personal strain for the organizer. In September 2025, when followers grew from 30,000 to 200,000, Brickley reported feeling overwhelmed by the volume of requests, leading to a several-month hiatus. Alice Marwick of the Data & Society Research Institute noted that such volunteer-led initiatives often face burnout within a year or two.
For participants and targets, the day-to-day experience involves a sudden influx of notifications that can drown out existing harassment, though the reports did not state whether original negative comments are removed. The long-term efficacy of this method in changing broader social norms remains under evaluation by researchers. Brickley continues to manage the group with the help of volunteers, selecting one target daily while acknowledging he must turn away many others due to limited resources. No specific future deadlines or court dates were reported.