'This is my last post'
Modern Warrior exits TikTok after being engulfed in scandal
Lance Tsosie, a formerly popular Native creator known as @modern_warrior on TikTok, announced his departure from the social video platform less than a month after being engulfed in a still-unfolding sexual misconduct scandal.
“It is that time, the time for me to step away entirely and delete my account,” Tsosie said in a video posted on the afternoon of March 21, 2022. In the caption, he promised: “I’m going to delete my account this time tomorrow.”
“You see, every negative experience that I've had over the last year and a half or so stemmed from this app," explained Tsosie, who built his massive platform on TikTok by supposedly calling out racism with the catchphrase “Hey, Colonizer.”
Even though he now acknowledges his actions repeatedly attracted “negative” attention, Tsosie had amassed 3.1 million followers on TikTok. But that was up until being accused of sexual misconduct by two other creators on the app about three weeks ago.
Tsosie posted, then quickly deleted, a video in which he offered a vague apology to the first creator that came forward. He did not address the second person and stayed silent as even more controversy swirled around him on the platform.
"From being doxxed, harassed, stalked, threatened,” Tsosie said in his seemingly final video on TikTok. “I'm just soooo tired.”
Prior to taking his @modern_warrior account private — and setting the farewell video to “Followers only” in an attempt to limit its reach to the general public — his subscriber count dropped to 2.7 million over the month of March.
Despite declaring his decision to leave TikTok, Tsosie is not swearing off social media entirely. He told his still-large audience to find him on Instagram, where his @modern_warrior__ account boasts about 149k followers.
"I feel I could be more influential in other spaces than on TikTok," Tsosie said in the goodbye post.
In fact it was on Instagram where Tsosie, who hails from the Navajo Nation, broke his silence about the scandal. The March 12, 2022, post was intentionally vague about the scandal.
“All I can say about the situation is - I can’t say anything,” Tsosie wrote at the tie. The post was immediately greeted with supportive comments.
The two creators who came forward with allegations against Tsosie in late February and in early March have since stepped away from TikTok as well. The first person said they were going to stop making new videos and removed posts in which @modern_warrior had been referenced.
The second person created one final series of videos about the scandal in the last week or so, but quickly deleted them.
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