ByteDance which is TikTok’s parent company is now under fire as it hails accusations about fake accounts and scraping content from Instagram, Snapchat, and an array of other popular platforms too.
The company is then accused of taking the scraped content and then putting it up on Flipagram as mentioned via a recent shocking report by BuzzFeed News. And while the incident is said to have taken place in 2017, it’s now being investigated further.
The allegations also spoke about how the reputable organization stole videos, images, username IDs, and more from a series of different platforms on social media. It then put up the stolen content on several different apps, without asking for consent or permission from the users involved.
BuzzFeed confirmed how it actually got the chance to speak to several workers in ByteDance who claim the content-stealing process began moments after the organization bought Flipgram, way back in 2017. Similarly, their report revealed how it was used as a strategy for growth by the company, adding how initial plans were to steal nearly 10,000 video-based content in just one day.
Other employees from ByteDance revealed how the move was intentionally done for information and training purposes of its algorithm. Interestingly, the latter is used by apps like TikTok too. These employees also spoke about how they also stole from Musical.ly, which turned into TikTok, after being bought by the company in 2017.
All the accusations and questions have been sent to ByteDance on the concerning incident, with the request for a thorough justification. They have responded with claims stating how Flipagram was bought in 2017 for a short while and was tested. Soon, their operations came to a halt and are no longer affiliated with the platform’s productions.
The documents also added references to the content stolen with a list of reasons that explain why it was actually done in the first place. And most of it had to do with testing videos on different algorithms to see which one performs the best.
Read next: Creator Campaigns Become a Bigger Priority for Brands in 2022, 66% of Budgets Increase
The company is then accused of taking the scraped content and then putting it up on Flipagram as mentioned via a recent shocking report by BuzzFeed News. And while the incident is said to have taken place in 2017, it’s now being investigated further.
The allegations also spoke about how the reputable organization stole videos, images, username IDs, and more from a series of different platforms on social media. It then put up the stolen content on several different apps, without asking for consent or permission from the users involved.
BuzzFeed confirmed how it actually got the chance to speak to several workers in ByteDance who claim the content-stealing process began moments after the organization bought Flipgram, way back in 2017. Similarly, their report revealed how it was used as a strategy for growth by the company, adding how initial plans were to steal nearly 10,000 video-based content in just one day.
Other employees from ByteDance revealed how the move was intentionally done for information and training purposes of its algorithm. Interestingly, the latter is used by apps like TikTok too. These employees also spoke about how they also stole from Musical.ly, which turned into TikTok, after being bought by the company in 2017.
All the accusations and questions have been sent to ByteDance on the concerning incident, with the request for a thorough justification. They have responded with claims stating how Flipagram was bought in 2017 for a short while and was tested. Soon, their operations came to a halt and are no longer affiliated with the platform’s productions.
The documents also added references to the content stolen with a list of reasons that explain why it was actually done in the first place. And most of it had to do with testing videos on different algorithms to see which one performs the best.
Read next: Creator Campaigns Become a Bigger Priority for Brands in 2022, 66% of Budgets Increase
