By Emma Nolan
Senior Reporter
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A prominent TikTok personality, Caleb King has deactivated his Twitter and Instagram accounts and released an apology after sexually inappropriate messages he allegedly sent to a 13-year-old when he was 16 emerged.
The now 21-year-old has addressed the messages in a video apology posted to TikTok as well as a series of statements posted to a Twitter account solely dedicated to the apology.
King, who has more than 700,000 followers on the app, where he goes by the handle @alaskan.boii, also opened up about being sexually abused as a child himself.
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"Hey TikTok, we need to have a serious conversation and a heavy trigger warning on sexual assault," he began in the clip, which has now amassed more than 15,000 views.
"If you've followed me for some time you know that I have been very open about being sexually assaulted. I was raped from the ages of 10 to 13. I was raped at 16 and I was raped again at 17.
"This led me to have a very unhealthy relationship with sex, one that took years of therapy to overcome."
He went on to say that two weeks after he was raped aged 16 he sent messages to a minor, asking if they were a virgin, if they hit puberty among other questions, showing a screenshot of the Snapchat conversation.
He added: "What I want to make very clear is that I sent inappropriate predatory messages to someone when I was 16, but what I also want to make clear is that we never met, we never had any sexual contact, in fact, we never really talked again after this string of messages."
King said he is a "huge believer in accountability" and said he knows how it feels to "have someone older than you take advantage of you."
"I'm sorry and I appreciate you and support you in speaking out."
Newsweek has reached out to King via TikTok for further comment.
The unverified account containing King's written statements on the situation has since been suspended. Below is a screenshot of one of the tweets Newsweek was able to obtain before the account was suspended.
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The news comes as another prominent TikTok user, Claira Janover made headlines when she announced that she had been fired from her internship at Deloitte due to videos she made criticizing Trump supporters and the All Lives Matter point of view.
The Harvard University student received swift and intense backlash for the video, in which she calls Trump "implicitly homophobic, transphobic, and xenophobic" and "choosing to prioritize his demagogue appeal towards bigotry and hatred," when it was posted to Twitter by Jack Posobiec, an alt-right activist and correspondent for One America News Network.
In another video, Janover said anyone with "the nerve, the sheer entitled caucasity to say 'all lives matter. I'ma stab you. I'ma stab you, and while you're struggling and bleeding out, I'ma show you my paper cut and say, 'My cut matters too.'"
The Harvard graduate has since said she received death threats for posting the viral clip.
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Business Insider reports that a Deloitte spokesperson said Janover was scheduled to work a two-week internship and was fired, saying: "We encourage and support our colleagues to speak out on these issues of critical importance to society, but our policies strictly prohibit invoking or threatening violence."
Janover has since posted on TikTok that the internship was initially supposed to be 10 weeks but was reduced to two and that her offer of a full-time contract after the internship has also been pulled.
King, who also received a job offer at Deloitte, supported his fellow TikTok user and tweeted Deloitte U.S. in a now-deleted tweet which read: "I am starting at @DeloitteUS in September as a Business Analyst in the same sector that @clurajan was supposed to start at. If getting fired for advocating for Black Lives Matter is a fireable offense, then #firemetoo."
He also told BI: "I found it extremely hypocritical that she was fired for a simple analogy explaining the holes in the 'All Lives Matter' argument," adding: "What does Deloitte truly stand for? Was I mislead in the hiring process? Are Black employees also being silenced and will I be if I come in the fall?"
King also supported Janover in a paired TikTok video.
Newsweek has reached out to Deloitte for clarification on King's employment status both in light of his support of Janover and in light of his recent apology.
The company had not responded at the time of reporting.
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