TikTok Murders Gone Viral: New ITVX documentary to look at three real-life crimes and social media impact

A new documentary series is to take a look at three real life murders and how TikTok impacted on these crimes.

The three part docu-series, called “TikTok: Murders Gone Viral”, will include “never-before-seen footage” of all the cases and also extensive details of each police investigation. Exclusive interviews with those closest to the case, including interviews with the victim’s family, will also be broadcast.

One of the cases examined will be that of 24-year-old TikTok influencer Mahek Bukhari, known online as MayBVlogs, from Stoke-on-Trent who was convicted in September of double murder alongside her mother for a fatal car crash on the A46. 

Mahek and her mother, Ansreen Bukhari, aged 46, were found guilty of the murder of Saqib Hussain and Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21, after the pair were killed in a crash. Hussain had supposedly threatened to reveal details of a long-running affair with Ansreen when she and her daughter arranged for their car to be rammed off the road near Leicester in February 2022.

The synopsis of the series reads: “The tragic and disturbing case of Mahek alongside two other murders forms the series, with each episode telling the harrowing story of one individual case, keeping the murder victims at its heart.”

The details of the other two murders that the series will examine has not yet been revealed by ITVX, but they say that each case discussed in the show “went viral on the world’s fastest growing social media app, TikTok”.

Nicola Lloyd, factual commissioning editor for ITVX, said: “"In an era where social media can turn ordinary lives into global spectacles, this series delves into the disturbing stories of crimes that captivated the world through TikTok. It's a reflection of our fascination with the digital age and its impact on the darkest corners of human behaviour."

Producers Nine Lives said the series will provide an “intimate insight” into each TikTok influencer involved in the case, and that it will explore the various dynamics between the perpetrator and their victim. The use of social media is re-shaping the “true crime genre for the social media and smartphone age”, they said.

Cat Lewis, Nine Lives CEO and executive producer, said: “It has been a privilege to work closely with the families of the young victims in these tragic cases to make TikTok: Murders Gone Viral and I hope the series will help to illuminate how individuals use coercive control, manipulation and violence.”

A release date for “TikTok: Murders Gone Viral” has not yet been released, but we’ll update this page with more information when we have it. The announcement about the series comes shortly after the BBC aired a documentary called “The TikTok Effect” which examined the consequences of Tiktokers getting involved with crime events such as the Nicola Bulley investigation, the Idaho student murders in the United States and worldwide riots.