Justin Bieber and Katy Perry rally in support of bullied boy Keaton Jones

A Tennessee boy has been inundated with support from celebrities on social media after a video of him tearfully recounting being bullied at school went viral.

Keaton Jones’s mother, Kimberly, posted the minute-long clip of her son apparently sheltering from bullies inside her car on her personal Facebook page on Friday. She wrote that she had filmed Keaton at his request “after he had me pick him up again because he was afraid to go to lunch”.

“Talk to your kids,” she concluded. “We all know how it feels to want to belong, but only a select few know how it really feels not to belong anywhere.”

In the video, Keaton says other students called him ugly, made fun of his nose and told him he had no friends. He says milk was poured on him and ham put down his clothes.

“Just out of curiosity, why do they bully?” he asks tearfully. “What’s the point of it? Why do they find joy in taking innocent people and find a way to be mean to them? It’s not OK.

“People that are different don’t need to be criticised about it. It’s not their fault. If you are made fun of, just don’t let it bother you.”

The video has been viewed more than 22m times on Facebook and has crossed over to Instagram, where it drew the attention of Katy Perry, Victoria Beckham, Justin Bieber, Cardi B, Snoop Dogg and other celebrities, many of whom made offers of friendship and gifts.

Bieber encouraged the boy to send him a direct message and endorsed the anti-bullying message to his 94.6m Instagram followers.

“The fact that he still has sympathy and compassion for other people when he’s going through it himself is a testament to who he is,” Bieber said in a video. “This kid is all-time. He’s a legend. Go check him out. His name’s Keaton.”

Bieber’s own video was viewed nearly 2.7m times in eight hours. The actor Penelope Cruz commented with six clapping emojis.

“This broke my 💔 today,” posted Katy Perry. “Please be kind to one another.”

The rapper Cardi B condemned Keaton’s middle-school bullies as “not gangsta”.

More than 2,444 posts on Instagram have the hashtag #standwithkeaton, some by newly established accounts such as @friendsofkeaton and @keatonjonessupport. A crowdfunding page for Keaton’s future education has so far raised more than $29,000.

Many more celebrities expressed their support on Twitter.

Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, asked for friends of Keaton to pass on his offer of a tour of the UFC headquarters in Las Vegas. Donald Trump Jr offered to host the Jones family if they accepted White’s invitation.

The UFC fighter Tim Kennedy offered support of a different kind to the boy in a video posted to Twitter. “I’m not good at many things but I’m decent with bullies,” he wrote. “If you ever need a sidekick, let me know. I’ll be there.”

The Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano met Keaton on Sunday, posting a photo on Twitter of him with his “new best bud … the little brother I always wanted”. Several Tennessee players are scheduled to visit Jones at school on Tuesday.

Kimberly Jones wrote in another public Facebook post on Saturday that she had received thousands of messages.

“Friends, overwhelmed is the understatement of the world right now. I love each of you for what you are doing, but there is literally no way I can respond or even read all of the messages,” she said. “I’m not trying to be rude, or ungrateful, I’m just overwhelmed & at the end of the day, this isn’t new for us, & we still have to truck on thru the day to day.”

Associated Press contributed to this report