TikTok’s parent company accused of copying content from Instagram and Snapchat

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has been accused of creating fake accounts on Flipagram and taking user profiles and content from social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat to accelerate the app’s rise.

‘It was also used to train the algorithm’

In interviews with four former ByteDance employees working on Flipagram by BuzzFeed News, it was learned that the company copied hundreds of thousands of accounts from different social media platforms for content without users’ consent.

Employees say the duplications were initiated right after ByteDance’s acquisition of Flipagram in January 2017, and this work was carried out by an engineering team in China. Allegedly, ByteDance used the copied content to train its algorithm, which recommends content to US users based on their interests.

It is stated that short-form videos, usernames, profile pictures and profile descriptions were copied from Instagram, Snapchat and Musical.ly. There has been no response yet from ByteDance to the current claims.

in 2013 Developed by Flipagram, it started out as a photo collage and short-form video app. Acquired by ByteDance in January 2017, the app has been rebranded as Vigo Video. The company also bought Musical.ly, which is shown as Flipagram’s competitor, and rebranded it as TikTok.