Influencer sparks debate after sharing her frustration with people walking in front of camera as she films

An influencer on TikTok has people questioning whether or not it’s rude to walk in front of someone taking a photo or video in public.

Antonia Freya Lydia, who goes by the username @turnttoni on the platform, posted a video with text across the screen that read, “Taking an aesthetic video in the London underground be like.” In the video, the influencer is seen standing in front of a train passing behind her with her hair blowing in the wind. In the middle of filming, a man walked then in front of Antonia as she is seen looking frustrated that someone blocked her shot.

Multiple times throughout the TikTok people proceeded to walk in front of her as she once again appeared frustrated and seemed to start the filming process over again.

“Like can you wait just one sec, sir?” she captioned her TikTok. Since being posted a little over a year ago, the video has been viewed over eight million times. The TikTok has over 9,000 comments, with most people questioning the influencer’s frustration. “Who do you think you are?” one person commented on the video.

Many commenters pointed out the fact that she was in public and should’ve expected other people to cut into the video. “It’s almost like…you’re in public,” one person commented. Another person agreed, writing, “How dare the public use the public transportation in public?”

“Sorry babes I’ll walk on the tracks next time,” one person joked in the comments.

Recently the TikTok has resurfaced again in a viral tweet. A person under the username @schizarella took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to post the video along with a caption in defense of the influencer’s frustration of people blocking her camera.

“When you see someone recording just walk behind the camera or wait literally 10 seconds, if you can’t do this then you don’t deserve to be part of a civilised society,” the tweet’s caption read.

The user, who appeared to be being sarcastic, continued: “Like I’m sorry you can’t be kind to a pretty girl for five minutes, maybe if you could afford a bigger car your life wouldn’t depend on crowding the trains like moths to a lamp. This is how societies end.”

Similar to the TikTok, people began to retweet, quote tweet, and comment sharing their disagreement with the original poster. “You’re in a public subway not a closed set, get a grip,” one quote tweet read. “We all joke about being the ‘main character’ but seeing people act like that irl is so cringe.”

However, the largely negative response hasn’t stopped some people from jumping to the influencer’s defense. “I feel like I’m annoyed both by people who want to film publicly like this and get easily annoyed that people are going about their lives,” one commenter began. “But also annoyed by people who won’t change trajectory ever so slightly to avoid screwing someone who’s trying to do something.”

“Like how deliberate and intentional some of those people walked through her shot, it reads as petty and bitter,” the commenter continued.

“I don’t think it’s that hard to walk behind the camera,” another comment supporting the influencer’s frustration read.

The Independent has contacted Lydia for comment.