- TikTok is full of American Sign Language tutorials.
- But virality doesn't always come with accuracy.
- The deaf community is urging people to only learn from creators who are deaf or hard of hearing.
People are using TikTok to pick up all kinds of skills, from dance moves to new languages — including American Sign Language, or ASL.
Spend 10 minutes on the app today and you'll likely encounter one of these ASL tutorials, many of which are synched to viral TikTok sounds, or recognizable phrases that get pulled from one video and repeated over and over in others, often creating new viral videos along the way.
Consider Scarlet May, a TikToker who goes by @scarlet_may.1 and has 6.7 million followers on TikTok. May, who is deaf, posted a video teaching viewers how to sign "ain't that your friend," a viral TikTok sound that's been used in over 33,000 videos.
May's ASL tutorial of the sound has gotten more than 10.5 million views and 1.5 million likes as of April 13.
@scarlet_may.1 Replying to @catalyahhx aint that yo friend? 😂 #fyp #foryou ♬ original sound - razorthoughts
Creator @leci.bby shared a TikTok video captioned "point of view: you been learning sign language from tiktok videos," in which she signs a viral TikTok sound. The video has almost 6.1 million views as of April 13.
@leci.bby Finna be fluent by summer😭#fypシ #tiktokuniversity #asl #signlanguage #trending #viral ♬ original sound - fwzinx
And they're not alone: The #asl hashtag has over 7.2 billion views on TikTok, though not every video is an ASL tutorial.
But not every ASL TikTok tutorial checks out. Three ASL speakers who are deaf told Insider that while an increased interest in the language is a positive, learners should try to learn from the best sources: the deaf community.
"I think it's great that people are learning ASL via social media but the con side is that hearing people are 'teaching' it and often are inaccurate," Jennifer Endicott, a certified ASL teacher who is deaf and who teaches ASL through Zoom lessons, told Insider.
ASL videos are going viral on TikTok — but you might not be learning the right signs
ASL heavily involves the hands, but the language is also spoken through the face and body, said Endicott.
Many hearing people tend to show signs only in their hands on social media, so learning from hearing people and then communicating with a deaf person can cause confusion, Endicott added.
Many viral TikTok sounds include curse words, which might be why learning them in ASL is proving so popular, said a TikToker named Gary Fertile. Fertile, who is deaf, shares educational ASL content on TikTok as @deafinitlygary. He has almost 1 million followers on the platform.
"I feel like if anything, when I teach curse words, it encourages and introduces people to learn the language. After all, curse words are usually the first sought after words when learning any language," Fertile told Insider.
But when people learn curse words in ASL purely because "it looks cool," it can be disrespectful to the deaf community, he added.
"It is an important language which many deaf people rely on and while it might be fun to do a song or curse in, it's still a critical part of the deaf community," Fertile said.
Insider also got in touch with TikTok creator Tayler Ristau, known as @taylerris on the app, who is deaf and speaks ASL. She shared a similar sentiment to both Fertile and Endicott: "I think trends are a fun way for people to be exposed to ASL but shouldn't necessarily be used to learn from or teach."
Her advice for those interested in learning ASL is to seek out deaf creators and take in their content.
"If you're respectful, open to learning, and humble, you are always welcome to join and learn," Ristau said.
Insider spoke to Andrew Bottoms, a deaf studies lecturer and program director at the Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development. Bottoms was born and raised in a deaf family, and his native language is ASL.
"My stance is very strong on this question. Hearing people should not teach ASL," Bottoms said.
"My reason for this is simple. If there were no deaf people on this earth, there would be no ASL. Hearing folks learning ASL with the intention of teaching takes away the platform from the deaf community," he added.
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