From TikTok challenges to moral panic: Don Alì and the “invasion of southern Italy”

This paper investigates the moral panic that emerged in Italy around the so-called maranza youth, focusing on the case of influencer Don Alì and his outlandish TikTok challenge to invade southern Italy. I examine how a digital provocation — initially designed for engagement and monetization — was reframed into a public order issue by traditional media and law enforcement. I highlight the interplay of algorithmic storytelling and processes of racialization in shaping both the subcultural practices of second-generation youth and their public representation. Interpreted through the metaphor of professional wrestling, this case reveals how ambiguity between fiction and reality sustains attention economies while exposing marginalized creators to intensified surveillance and exclusion. Ultimately, I argue that this episode exemplifies how moral panics still function as mechanisms of social control, redirecting structural inequalities into spectacles of deviance and reinforcing broader narratives of marginalization in contemporary digital societies.