The disturbing rise of Mizzy: this is what happens when culture values nothing but attention
When I first came across Mizzy, now infamous as the “TikTok Terror”, it was in videos of him being chased by security after breaking into Alton Towers or riding an electric bike into a Sainsbury’s. He seemed annoying in a “kids these days!” kind of way, and I didn’t think much of it. But fast-forward a few months and Mizzy’s videos – his real name is Bacari-Bronze O’Garro – went to a very dark place indeed. The 18-yearold has provoked outrage for his abhorrent TikTok videos, which have seen him abduct an elderly woman’s dog, attempt toleapfrog over an Orthodox Jewish man, enter a stranger’s home without permission, and walk up to young people at night and askif they “want to die”. He has since apologised, but you can only imagine the shocking and disturbing effect this “content” must have had on those involved.
Looking back on it, it almost seems as if this escalation in videos was built into the system: illicit bike rides aren’t enough to sustain the internet’s attention, you have to up your prank game and really force people to watch. Now bewildered and angry people across Britain have been understandably left with a series of questions. Namely: who is Mizzy and what does he want?
The reactions have tended to fall into two camps. There seems to be a new story about him every day – each an excuse for people on the internet to shout about how he has not faced enough consequences. But there are also a fewwelfare-minded folks on social media who view Mizzy as someonemore in need of a social worker than a judge.
It’s true that Mizzy is an adult but he is very young, which is worth bearing in mind. At the same time, we should be wary of how we portray him. What both responses fail to take into account is that Mizzy has recognised that, in a competitive market, there is a high demand for content that really aggravates other people – the kids call it “cloutrage”. By pursuing this – in an amoral, algorithmic universe that rewards anything that garners attention – he is engaging in a twisted form of online entrepreneurship. One that could return serious profits through the