Travis Scott: Astroworld conspiracy theory TikTok videos taken down

Conspiracy theory videos about the fatal crush at Travis Scott's Astroworld festival are being taken off TikTok, the video platform says.

Eight people died and hundreds were injured when crowds at the rapper's headline set in Houston, Texas, rushed towards the stage.

Conspiracy theories that have spread on social media include claims the crush was a ritualistic sacrifice.

A TikTok spokesman told Newsbeat it was removing any suspicious content.

Some conspiracy theorists have said the crowd was put under a spell before the crush, and phrases such as "Astroworld sacrifice" have been trending online since the tragedy.

Others have linked the date of the event to the establishment of the Church of Satan and claim the rapper's lyrics are also of a Satanic nature.

Satanism is defined as worshipping the devil, and typically involves rejecting Christian symbols and practices - such as by placing crosses upside down.

TikTok guidelines state that users must not post "conspiracy theories used to justify hateful ideologies".

But the theories aren't just spreading on TikTok.

On Twitter they're being shared widely, including by some users with more than 100,000 followers.

By Rachel Schraer, health and disinformation reporter

Major events that grab attention on social media also provide opportunities for people to insert their favourite agenda or conspiracy theory into the conversation.

Alongside genuine discussion of what went wrong at Astroworld, TikTok has been flooded with users falsely claiming what happened was "demonic" or part of a Satanic ritual.

Several social media accounts on other platforms have incorrectly linked injuries and deaths to the Covid vaccines. There is no evidence of this.

A very rare side effect of the vaccine is myocarditis or inflammation of the heart. This is not the same as a heart attack, and in almost all cases gets better quickly after treatment.

These posts fit into a wider pattern of people attempting to link unrelated injuries or health conditions to the jab, to back up their beliefs.

Kaylen Traylor, 23, was at the gig and spoke to Newsbeat about the things she was seeing on her social media timelines earlier this week.

"I don't believe a lot of tweets we're seeing are what happened," she said.

"Everyone who was there has the right to say what they saw, but anyone who wasn't there, is really just spreading conspiracies."

Following the disaster, Travis Scott has offered to pay for funeral costs for the victims.

He's also offered a month of therapy to anyone affected by the tragedy, in collaboration with a US mental health organisation.

This collaboration has also been criticised by some people accusing those involved of trying to profit from the tragedy.

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