Glamming up ‘dirty war’: teens in Mexico glorify 1970s secret police on TikTok

‘The videos mostly show young men in gray or brown suits standing proudly in front of a 1970s Cadillac or Rolls Royce.’ Illustration: TikTok

Young people in Mexico are taking to TikTok to imagine themselves as agents from the country’s 1970s secret police, the DFS – a force which was infamous for torturing, murdering or disappearing thousands during the country’s “dirty war”.

The trend, which has sparked condemnation by some users on the social media platform, has seen young people use AI to transform themselves into agents glorifying the “absolute impunity” afforded to the notoriously corrupt and brutally violent secret police.