A TikToker has gone viral after accusing a larger content creator of inviting her to his home for a collab and then being cagey about his TikTok content.
In a viral video, @uminarn, who has 330,000 followers, alleges that while at her old job at the mall, fellow TikToker Alex Bouvier (@actionalex2000) asked to swap numbers with her so that they could work on content collaborations together. She says that Bouvier had 500,000 followers at the time. Bouvier currently has 454,000 followers. She adds that she only had 200,000 followers at the time.
“He showed me his [account] for like a split second, and he had 500,000 followers. And that’s all I was able to see,” the 17-year-old @uminarn says.
She says she agreed to exchange numbers.
“I thought nothing of it because he was, like, really nice and everything,” she says. “So I decided, like, sure, yeah.”
She then claims that she and Bouvier arranged to do a content collaboration at his home via text. “‘We’re doing a collab with a brand, and I was wondering if you would want to collab with us. You get a percentage of the earnings,’” she recalls him texting her.
When the day of the collaboration arrived, she says she had a “really weird gut feeling” about it.
“So I decide to double-check with him, and I ask for his account again ’cause I never even got to follow him,” she says. “And he’s being, like, super hesitant about it.”
She says Bouvier remained reluctant about sending over his account details and told her to “just come over.” She says he promised to show her his account when she got to his home.
“Now I was extremely weirded out,” she says.
She says she eventually convinced him to send his account information.
“The first thing I noticed about this account, he has over 500,000 followers, but I look at his views and likes, and he’s only getting like, maybe like 100 likes and like 400 views on each video,” she says.
She adds that the second thing she noticed was the nature of the content, which the Daily Dot has not been able to access and verify but which @uminarn discusses in her video.
@uminarm says these purported discoveries were enough to make her cancel the collaboration with Bouvier. “He was like, ‘Your loss.’” “And I thought that was it,” @uminarm continues.
But then, the TikToker alleges Bouvier later reached out again and asked her to do a testimonial video for him about how he “helped” her grow her account. She says he told her he had an “account-growing business.”
“I’m like, ‘No, like, that would be … lying,’” she says she told him. “‘And I don’t lie to my audience.’ And he’s like, ‘Dude, does it … matter?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, it … matters. You didn’t grow my account? I did. And he’s just like, ‘Bro, you … suck,’ … and he was just like being like a total jerk about it.”
She says she eventually blocked him.
@uminarm says at the start of the video that she is calling Bouvier out “just for the safety of any other TikTokers.” She reiterates that at the end of her video. “I’m making this video today just to tell everyone, like, if you run into this guy, do not collab with him. Do not, like, interact with him. He’s … weird,” she says.
She also urges followers not to send Bouvier hate.
Since it was posted on May 29, the video amassed over 6.8 million views.
Bouvier has since responded in his own video on May 31. In his response, he accuses @uminarm of defamation. He denies that he asked her to lie about how she grew her account. He also says that his only intention was to “do business” together.
The Daily Dot reached out to both @uminarm and Bouvier via Instagram direct message.
@uminarm told the Daily Dot, “All I have to say is that the guy is strange. He couldn’t even get through his response video without promoting his [TikTok] shop.”
In a follow-up video posted on May 29, @uminarm provides screenshots featuring her alleged conversation with Bouvier. She shows viewers the entire purported exchange, which appears to corroborate with her account in the initial video.
“He loser this is Alex,” the first message, dated Sept. 30, reads.
That is followed by another message about the alleged brand deal. “I got a brand deal and they shipped a product to me, I want you to be in it and I’ll pay you Half of all the earnings,” it reads.
The sender sent her a photo of a box that has “ZEN + ORIGIN” on it. ZEN + ORIGIN is a California-based company that specializes in face rollers.
The Daily Dot reached out to ZEN + ORIGIN via email.
Later on in the text thread, @uminarm asked: “yo what’s your tiktok.”
“Aye my bad jus saw this, you wanna start coming over now? So we got more time to create,” the texter responded.
@uminarm later asked again: “What’s your TikTok again though.”
“I’ll show you when you get here,” the responder said, including a crying laughing emoji.
“That sounds sketchy dude,” @uminarm responded with a sob emoji.
“How?” the person responded.
“Why won’t you just tell me your tiktok,” @uminarm asked.
“Cuzzz it’s cringe ion want you to watch it w/out me,” they responded.
The person then relented and gave her the account name.
Then, @uminarm responded to say that she felt their content “didn’t mesh” and canceled the collaboration.
In a text message dated Oct. 10, the person told @uminarm that they got paid “20 gs” for the promotional content but that “we could make a lot more sales if we worked together.” They then went on to text, “Feel we could make a lot more sales if we worked together.”
“But anywayss” they continued. “I’m creating a 30 day social media bootcamp on growing on TikTok! Is it okay if I screenshot your profile and use you as testimonial for my program?”
On Instagram, Bouvier has a highlight featuring “testimonials.” They feature screenshots of people’s profiles and focus on their follower counts. “I help content creators Grow & Monetize on TikTok,” his bio reads.
@uminarm replied, “I’m not comfortable with that, sorry.”
“Why not?” they asked.
“Because you didn’t help me grow my account,” she responded.
“Yeah duhh,” they replied, followed by a cry laugh emoji. “It’s just for promo. That’s just how the social media world works.”
They then proceeded to try and convince her, until @uminarm said, “I’m not interested in lying, there’s your answer.”
Then, several times, the person told @uminarm to “calm down.”
“I’m blocking you,” @uminarm replied. “You’re fucking strange.”
Several commenters, along with @uminarm, claimed that Bouvier deleted some of the content from his account.
In another subsequent video, she shares a screenshot of what appears to be a TikTok featuring Bouvier and a TikToker by the username of @serotonintime.
TikToker @serotonintime says in her own response video posted on May 29, “The first thing I want to say is to the other creator, I’m so sorry that he made you feel uncomfortable. I wish you didn’t have to have that experience. He never told me about what happened there.”
The Daily Dot reached out to @serotonintime via TikTok comment.
After this, Bouvier made a response video of his own, two days later, on May 31.
He says the reason he has a wide follower to view ratio is because his account was inactive for the past four years, and he was “building it back up.” He then says he made a “shit ton of money” through the TikTok Shop and that the creator “missed out” on that.
“I wanted to give you another opportunity to be a part of my TikTok growth program, where I teach other people how to grow on TikTok,” he continues, addressing @uminarn directly. “I never said that I grew your account. I wanted you to be a testimonial to show people that they can actually grow their accounts, or whatever.”
He then defends his questioning of her, saying he “just wanted to know why” she turned him down and says what she is doing is “defamation.”
“As far as whether or not you’re gonna get sued, that’s still to be decided,” he says. “But don’t use people’s names and put them down because you had a bad experience.”
He says she’s made “dangerous” implications about him and that he just wanted to “do business” with the creator. “You’re putting my name and my reputation at stake just to get views, and that’s not cool at all,” he adds. “Don’t ever do that again.”
Finally, he calls out “twisted-minded people” for allegedly commenting on some of his other videos with his sister, whom he says he recently reunited with. “That’s a line you do not cross,” he says. “I’m reporting every single account that says anything disgusting about my sister.”
In response, @uminarn stitched his video and reiterates in it that she didn’t want to collaborate with him due to the nature of his content. “And also because you kept pushing me for an answer as to why I didn’t want to,” she adds.
“I told you that it made me uncomfortable. That should have been answered enough,” she says.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
