For as long as there has been an entertainment industry, there have been predators preying on potential stars. And today’s online entertainment industry is no exception – but even the most cynical viewer may be surprised by how terrible the story behind Netflix’s new revelation about a TikTok-exploiting hidden system is.
Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult focuses on a management company that represents a group of prominent TikTok dancers. But the show claims the organization is more of a cult than a company, and the documentary details abusive behavior and terrible tactics that former members say were used by the company and its founder — and the lengths the dancers’ families had to go to to help they escape.
What is the 7M TikTok cult?
The 7M here is not a number, but a company: 7M Films, Inc, founded by church pastor Robert Shinn. According to the documentary, 7M and Shinn – who threatened the production with legal action, according to Katie Joe Paulson, who appears on the program – operate very much like a religious cult, using the promise of stardom to recruit potential superstars. in their organization. Once part of the 7M family, former members say, they have been cut off from their friends and family and placed in an “unsafe environment” where they are exploited.
Netflix isn’t the first media company to target 7M. Rolling Stone reported the allegations against the company in 2022, allegations that became the subject of a lawsuit against the management firm the following year. As Rolling Stone explained onlinethe dancers “claimed that the owner had brainwashed them, exerted economic and physical control over them and demanded that they ‘submit’ to him.”
What’s rather saddening about the story here is that, while it’s horrible, it’s also horribly well-known: the film and music industries are full of stories of would-be stars getting bad deals or ending up with management abuse, with their desire to becoming famous exceeds their capabilities. to spot the sharks swimming around in every sector where there are big piles of money to be made. And that means that many more young people will be dancing for devils in the coming months and years.