Unpacking TikTok Plagiarism Issues

We live in the age of plagiarism. However sad it may sound, copying is everywhere! You may use a plagiarism checker like PlagiarismSearch.com for your texts to check on their originality, but what can be done with the posts in your Facebook or TikTok accounts? The algorithm of TikTok, for example, is personalized to the maximal level. It may seem to you that the app knows you better than you do! Does anything worry you? Which concerns do you have now? Do you prefer cats or dogs? Which tutorials would you like to use? TikTok actually knows the answers to all those questions! It may sound funny but it actually does not! The homepage really often shares advice on how to steal ideas and use them in your own viral videos!

Would You Like Your Video to Go Viral? Then It Is Time to Steal!

Ok, cats, dogs, as well as girls’ concerns about their nails and hair as well as boys’ concerns about their muscles and macho spirit are self-explanatory. However, why don’t they call for originality instead of borrowing ideas? It would be much more reasonable to encourage students to check plagiarism online than to introduce them to the ideas of more effective stealing.

I bet you have also seen a lot of expert tips on how to make stealing content from TikTok a usual practice. It is really embarrassing to see that it is a common thing to take any possible measures with the only purpose to grow the account to thousands of followers. Look through the guidelines you see everywhere! One of the first pieces of advice is to copy the content you adore on TikTok. For sure, you cannot just take it and use as it is. Literally pasting the copied content will not pass any plagiarism check, but if you do that wisely, you will succeed. That is what popular ads on TikTok say! They try to make you believe that stealing content is absolutely acceptable and you can do that as you want to be among the trend-setters online.

So, you may conclude: if someone is successful, why can’t I? Nobody will check the plagiarism in a video, so I can just do the same and share the success of the one who was the first. It is really tempting to take great ideas intentionally from some talented person as no one can use a plagiarism checker and punish you for that. No credit to the actual author and the entire acknowledgement for the ideas goes to you! It smells rather bad, doesn’t it? It is a common situation though nowadays. Podcasts repeat each other and TikTokers may even believe that the content which is easy to access belongs to no one. Creating stories, people try to become popular and earn money. Stealing the stories, other people take the popularity and profit they have not deserved at all.

Is It Possible to Check Copyright on TikTok?

Where there any cases of accusing plagiarizers for stealing podcasts or video ideas? Is it legal to use music, text, or ideas for the video from the posts of other users? There is a generally accepted definition and interpretation of ‘intellectual property theft’ and it is the basis for lawsuits between musicians, artists, writers, and those who deal with creating music, movies, or texts. Actually, in most cases, pursuing legal action is not worth the effort and money spent.

What are the common questions of TikTokers who want to protect their ideas?

• Can I copyright my jokes?
• Can I copyright my dances or special movements?
• Can I copyright my dish recipe?
• How to find out if someone plagiarized what I had done and get him punished?

Unfortunately, if you a podcaster or an influencer, you should realize that what you do on the Internet is not the intellectual property for copyright. Social media is the field that does not ensure protection of your creative ideas.

Will It Make Sense to Police Against Plagiarizers?

You might have already thought about how to report TikTok for stealing content and how to take measures which can prevent using the results of your work. For example, one of the debatable subjects for years is the meme theft. A funny meme can go viral overnight and then everyone can keep reposting it. The problem has never been resolved. Actually, it seems there cannot be any effective solution at all. Have you ever done that yourself? Look through your page on social media. Have all the jokes there got acknowledgments to the actual authors? The answer is evident.

Jonathan Bailey, an English actor, refers to three eras in the history of online plagiarism:

1. Stealing for success without financial interest (‘90s and early 2000s)
2. Producing low-quality AI content for search engine optimization (mid-2000s)
3. Copying content from social media to grab the attention and make revenue (now)

TikTok and other social media platforms are making huge pressure on the users. They demand getting more and more stunning posts and videos and podcasts no matter which is their approach to plagiarism. You may say ‘Someone copied my TikTok!’ and the reaction will be that it is a current trend and you have a follower who wants to be like you. Digital space often has no mercy.

There is hardly any other platform which is more encouraging for plagiarizers than TikTok. Building off the videos of each other and reacting to the ideas they find appealing, users promote the ideas which gradually lose the authorship.

Everybody remembers cases when weird dances created a new trend and there were thousands of videos online with the same movements and music. Very soon it was impossible to remember the name of the actual creator of that successful idea, which kept spreading. It was the case with Renegade dance, which is only one of the many. You do not know how to report TikTok for stealing content. It is actually time-consuming and not very effective. Try to get your own credit for the viral moment you have created! Sell your great image as an NFT or squeeze some cash out of your video at once.

If someone takes your ideas without any consent from your side, you definitely feel exploited and devastated. It hurts to realize that someone got the profit out of your work, actually exerting no effort at all! That is the essence of stealing which is the same with plagiarism. Weeding out cases of cheating with content online is a real challenge. It appears in a variety of forms and you can trace your TikTok ideas in someone’s podcast or post on Facebook. The society has changed and there is no more Internet ethics. It is actually up to you to decide whether you violate all the rules as well and earn money in the manner of a loser or become a winner with genuine content and ideas that can make others amazed.