Missing Girl Is Rescued After Using Hand Signal from TikTok

nytimes.com

5 pointsamrrs4 comments

This is a dupe and was discussed before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2915374

The headline is deceptive enough that I would characterize it as a lie. Apparently she was indeed rescued "after" using some gimmicky signal trending on TikTok, but not because of it. "The guy that called the police have said in interviews that he didn't understand the hand sign nor understood it as a hand sign. He reacted because she looked distressed. Empathy and attentiveness saved the day, not some 'tiktok' trick", as tokai noted in the previous discussion. [1]

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29159701

If frantically trying to get a hand signal across worked, then so be it. Someone who doesn't know how to signal SOS still might notice the flashing and look closer to notice the sense of urgency.

So I wouldn't call it a lie. The signal itself might not have gotten the message across, but the frantic attempt at displaying it did.

You are missing a '0' at the end of your first link.

It should be: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29153740

Thanks for catching that. Unfortunately, it seems that can't edit my comment anymore.

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