The Fancam Situation

The+Fancam+Situation

By Len Beczko, Staff Writer

Trigger Warning: The following article contains sensitive content that may be unsuitable for some readers. Read at your own risk. 

About five months ago, the first ‘slitz’ accounts began popping up. They each had two obvious things in common, an odd-looking symbol in their bio, known now as a ‘slitz’, and a love for K-Pop fancams. However, they weren’t ordinary fans. These were members of a cult who were using the guise of fancams to spread fear throughout the general public. The trick was in the fancams. They’d appear ordinary for the first few seconds, before changing into something traumatic. Numerous people were hurt in this incident before it became more contained.

Back in May, many Instagram accounts came into existence with similar themes in their names. These came to be known as slitz accounts, as a popular theme among them was adding the word ‘slitz,’ as well as the symbol in their bio. They seemed innocent enough at first, just fan accounts for their favorite idols. They usually had a few fancams posted. These weren’t actual fancams, though, just ruses to lure in unsuspecting fans and traumatize them. Sadly, many people fell for this trick, causing many people to become deeply affected by what was shown instead of the fancam.

These accounts didn’t just put their ‘fancams’ on their account. They also messaged people at random with the question ‘What are you afraid of?’. Upon receiving this message, many people would respond in a joking manner, thinking it was some kind of prank. This was not the case, as they soon found out. The owner of the account would send them a fancam, which for most people, would auto-play. This led to even more people being affected by these sick accounts.

Over the course of the months, many people became affected by these slitz accounts. This led to people of many different internet communities to come together and spread awareness of these accounts to keep unaffected people safe. There’s even a page on Twitter that posts current news regarding the accounts, including lists of which ones have been found,  so that everyone may block them (@fancamsituation). 

These accounts are all over social media; Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, and even Amino, in some cases. The best thing to do to keep yourself is turn off auto-play so that any videos sent to you aren’t automatically played, and not to click any links from unknown senders, as they are also using links to get people IP addresses and, in some cases phone numbers. To learn more about this topic, you can also simply search up ‘fancam situation’ on Google.