Copying for a creative is the reddest flag. Find out how to avoid the pitfall of plagiarism and why it’s easier than ever to plagiarize.
Is TikTok’s For You Page Really For You?
One of the quintessential parts of social media platforms in this age is customization. The Instagram explore page, TikTok’s for you page, or YouTube’s homepage are just a few examples. So many sites use the user’s own tastes to design their scrolling experience. This type of technology shows how far the capabilities of the internet have advanced. However, it also poses a unique problem.
When you scroll past viral videos on your phone, you may get the subconscious desire to do the trend yourself. Even the best of us have an embarrassing ‘Corvette Corvette’ attempt sitting in our drafts. Although this seems harmless, it pushes a dark idea to millions of social media users. The strategy of plagiarizing content to go viral is undoubtedly efficient; however, it massively suppresses creativity.
This is particularly the case on TikTok. Tiktok, more than any other social media platform currently, has a profound impact on pop culture. If you’re wondering why you couldn’t leave the house earlier this year without hearing a high-pitched “sheesh,” that’s the culprit. If you have an account, quickly open the app and scroll for a few minutes. Note how many videos are purely original jokes, stories, or narratives. Then take down how many are trends, reposts, or recreations. The ratio may shock you.
In addition to the push of “trend” TikToks, many users are getting posts on their FYP literally advising them to plagiarize content. Videos like “How to EASILY produce video idea for TikTok” explicitly suggest viewers simply imitate their favorite creator. “Find somebody else’s TikTok that inspires you and then literally copy it,” a user explains in the guide.
Got To Give (The Credit) Up
Plagiarism is obviously a lousy practice, yet it’s prevalent on apps where popularity directly leads to rewards. Unfortunately, individuality is often easy to disregard for a Wendy’s endorsement or Shein promo code.
Regardless of plagiarism’s stigma, it’s technically legal in the United States. Things only get tricky when dealing with intellectual property such as books, movies, songs, and designs. The only way someone can properly sue for stolen content is through the intellectual property system. The infamous 2015 Robin Thicke/Pharrell Williams v. Marvin Gaye Estate case is a prime example. Thicke and Pharrell were forced to pay the Gaye estate over $7 million after a jury determined their hit song “Blurred Lines” lifted the composition of “Got to Give it up.” In that instance, the Gaye family was lucky. They had the money and ability to pursue legal matters. However, many creatives don’t have that privilege. Even in cases where intellectual property is plagiarized, lawsuits are often too expensive and time-consuming for the victim to take on.
Unfortunately, Even with the intellectual property system, things can fly under the radar. Choreography, jokes, expressions, and shared knowledge cannot be copyrighted. This leads to professions like comedy and dance being some of the most vulnerable to plagiarism. Coincidentally, these are two ventures that are incredibly prevalent on TikTok.
Plagiarism Experts Say…
Jonathan Bailey is a writer who runs a blog called Plagiarism Today. After being a victim of plagiarized poetry in the early 2000s, Bailey created the blog to document notable instances of plagiarism in pop culture.
“[Social media] puts a lot of pressure on [the] creative process,” the writer explained. “I’ve talked to repeated plagiarists who say, ‘I felt pressure to put up this many [content].'”
This type of pressure is undoubtedly present on TikTok. In video guides like “How to Grow Your Account to 1k Followers in 1 Week,” users are taught to post at least several times a week to gain followers.
Faithe Day is a postdoctoral fellow at UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Black Studies Research. “[People] create trends…those trends are meant to be followed by everyone else,” she explained. “There’s a fine line between following a trend and copying what someone else is doing.”
Indeed, plagiarism is morally wrong. However, not all copiers might know what they’re doing. “They don’t know that the thing they’re talking about someone else has already discovered,” Day expounded.
The Fight Against Plagiarism
It can’t be denied social media is a massive hub for uncredited work. Even so, platforms do put a slight effort into fixing this problem. The stitch and duet feature on TikTok encourages users to provide credit when doing trends. Stitching combines an original video with another, while duetting places two videos side by side.
The commonly dubbed clock app is constantly home to stolen ideas, even with these features. It can be virtually impossible to track a trend down to the originator once it becomes too big. This is an issue that permeates black dances in particular. Online trends like the ‘Renegade’ and ‘Shake That S—-‘ have grown tremendously with very little credit given to the black youth responsible. With TikTok stars like Addison Rae and Charli D’amelio getting Met Gala invites off the strength of viral dances, this is leaving many black users feeling unsatisfied.
So when making your viral TikTok, make sure the word “credit” pops up somewhere in that caption. After all, nobody likes a thief.
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Dreema Carrington|IG: @dr3amgirl79|Twitter: @notdreema