TWO squabbling TikTok users arranged to meet in the car park of Swansea McDonald's in February, the confrontation spilling into an ugly brawl that went viral after it was livestreamed by other users of the popular social media app.
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Terri-Ann Irvine, 32, of Sandgate, and Karlee Jones, 29, of Lake Haven, had been involved in an ongoing dispute online, including claims of being "defamed" and being "called out", when they agreed to meet in the car park off Wood Street about 10.30pm on February 2 this year.
The meeting quickly devolved into an argument and brawl, the pair punching, kicking, hair-pulling and grappling with each other while others watched, filmed on their mobile phones or livestreamed the melee for a TikTok audience watching at home.
After some time, a third woman, 19-year-old Tanesha Papani-O'Keeffe, became involved, grabbing Irvine's hair and throwing a number of punches.
Police found Irvine nearby and, after watching some of the mobile phone footage, advised her it appeared she was not a victim, but a willing participant.
She told police the meeting had been arranged on TikTok because Jones had "defamed her and called her out over ongoing issues between them".
Irvine had pleaded not guilty to affray and was expected to face a hearing in Belmont Local Court on Tuesday.
But she changed her plea to guilty and was convicted of affray and placed on a 12-month community corrections order, the same sentence Jones received after pleading guilty in April.
Only Papani-O'Keeffe, who also pleaded guilty to affray, escaped conviction, due to her limited involvement in the brawl and because she claimed she did not know about the confrontation before arriving at the car park at Swansea.
She was sentenced to a two-year community release order without conviction.
And after reading about the brawl and its genesis, Magistrate Stephen Olischlager had a message about social media.
"These matters should never have occurred," he said. "People seem to live in a world of online and TikTok seems to have a capacity to blow things out of proportion. It is too insidious in the way that it invades our lives."
