A compelling example is the recent case involving Matthew Bogani Lani, a TikTok sensation from South Africa, who found himself in legal trouble after being apprehended for masquerading as a medical professional online and dispensing unauthorized medical advice.
From Oddity Central:
27-year-old Matthew Bogani Lani rose to internet fame when he started claiming that he was one of the youngest doctors in South Africa. He often told his followers that he was somewhat of a wunderkind, skipping several high-school grades entirely to graduate at age 16, before enrolling at Wits University to study medicine. He often filmed himself patrolling through hospitals dressed in white and wearing a stethoscope around his neck, claiming to be on his way to see patients and even dishing out medical advice to his followers, or selling them medication. He wouldn’t be the first doctor to do this in order to build an online following, but the problem was that Lani wasn’t a doctor at all, he just posed as one.
Last month, Matthew Lani was arrested inside the Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg. He was wearing a hoodie and had a surgical mask over his face, with a stethoscope around his neck. This was allegedly not his first time masquerading as a doctor in the hospital for his online audience, as evidenced by some of his TikTok videos, but it was the first time he was caught.
“Lani was caught just before 8 pm disguised in a hoodie and wearing a surgical mask with a stethoscope around his neck. He had previously entered the same facility to curate misleading content under the pretense he was a qualified doctor,” a Gauteng Department of Health spokesperson said.
Immediately after being apprehended, the TikTok star asked to go to the bathroom, only to try to escape through a small window. Security guards realized he was making a run for it, called for backup, and Lani was caught once again and delivered to the police.
This truly prompts a moment of reflection on the plethora of information circulating on TikTok, often presented by self-proclaimed "experts."
Unless these individuals prominently display their credentials onscreen, my skepticism is here to stay.
