One of the influencers impersonated the story of my life on Tijook. Social media flourish on tradition – but this was a very far step Esme Hoyette
toA month, I wrote an article about It is adopted by a British couple during the era of one China’s policy. Three days after the story is played in a National newspaperI immersed my phone with a wave of messages from a friend who sent me a post from Tiktok by an influencer tells her life story. Twenty seconds of her video, fell. It was followed by complete sections of my article, Word for Word, for its 20,000 followers. She did not even have courtesy to give me credit.
When I wrote this article, the idea of exposing the personal details of my life for scrutiny or criticism was terrifying. However, I felt the right to share this story in the hope that others would find comfort if they also have similar experiences. What I did not expect is for someone to take my words and demand them as their own.
I talked about her adoption, but she took sections of the article in which I discussed my intimate thoughts and feelings, and surpassed these things. I recited how “in the early twenties of my life, I measured my self -value in the number of matches I got on Tinder or the number of children who were sending text messages”, and “imagine a childhood in China and grew up by my biological parents.” She took the exact phrases she wrote, brought her back to her followers, then thanked users in the comments when he praised them. I understand that tradition is the highest form of compliment, but this was a blatant theft.
She commented on the video: “Have you heard of plagiarism?” Shortly later, her husband appeared in my DMS on Instagram. He told me that I was not “the only Asian in the world that was adopted in this time frame”, and he refused me as “not special”, and even claimed that I had copied the original videos of his wife. I called them both crazy and prohibited it immediately.
After that, I felt that I had to set up the record straight. So the next morning, I repaired a video claiming that the influencer was falling into my work and listed clips from her video alongside my article as a guide. In response to Tiktok, she and her husband posted a video clip, insisting: “Her story and experience is also my story and my experience … I did not steal her story.” After hours, I published another video, apologizing for using my words and saying that she was sorry for any painful feelings, and that her intention was not “malicious”. I also sent me unilaterally to apologize.
Perfume-passing the words or ideas of another person yourself without identifying sources or credit-a professional crime in most industries. At the university, it was dug me that you can be expelled if your article included a lot of the text that borrowed from the current work without giving credit. The message was frank: You do not fall.
However, the message on social media is more mysterious. While Tiktok explains that copyright protects “original authorship” and prevents users from publishing the content that violates the intellectual property of anyone else, it also states that copyright does not extend to basic ideas: “For example, anyone may possess copyright in a movie, but not the basic plan or topics that are expressed in the movie.” With Instagram, the platform encourages creators to spread the original content, but in practice, no one will notice it without anyone noticing unless one of the Creators earns it. YouTube, at least, contains built -in systems that can examine videos and allow rights holders to set the rules, but there is little to protect the younger creators whose thoughts are stealing, or when the work is raised online.
The platforms flourish on imitation. The originality is rare. To the extent that when someone creates something new, it is often copied by thousands of others within hours, with little or non -credit for the original creator.
The media critic and games on Youtuber Harry Brewis, also known as Hbomberguy, made a video of plagiarism in 2023 which has become a sudden success (it has recorded about 38 million views so far). It gave 17 examples as youtube created the words of YouTube’s words, content, and ideas from younger creators or online forums, noting that “the plagiarians seem to have this belief that they are better than their goals …:” Your thoughts are lost on you. They will have served better in my videos. “
Amethical creators need content to help them win the followers, and the creators relied on advertising revenues to remove the content at a pace. Any work, whether it is a writing or a video clip, requires time and effort, but the incentive is to do a lot of work, quickly. In theory, the masses give originality and new and exciting content – but for creators who spread every day, spreading new content often unrealistic, which leads to copying and imitating others.
The line between inspiration and theft can easily become unclear. The original idea directions when people are able to take a concept and make it their own, allowing the development of memes and jokes. Once a sufficient number of people repeat an idea, it turns into a direction and the source completely disappears. Take, for example, nothing beyond the Jet2 vacation direction, which inspired about 2.9 million videos. Creators have taken the sound from the Jet2Holsays advertisement and closed on clips of stunningly wrong things – a tent hunting fire, a person flies from a boat – turns the original advertisement into something new.
The other aspect of this is that as soon as there is an idea on the Internet, it is considered a fair game for copying without balance. My video has become virus, with thousands of users in comments that support me and discuss plagiarism online. My story and then gained another life. The other creators published “Drama” and videos explaining the situation I already set in my video. I was pleased to see the situation that raises a broader discussion, but I could only be skeptical of their motives. Were the people now weighing the story do this to shed light on plagiarism or chase the views?
At its best, the Internet can be a space where people share stories and ideas, and where creativity inspires more creativity. Giving credit is not negotiable. It creates a positive cycle where new ideas depend on old ideas, and where the time and effort that someone has done in his work is recognized. When giving credit upon its entitlement, creators may feel motivated to create instead of racing to produce a quick content participating in the fear of stealing their work. Asala deserves to celebrate – and is not reduced to mining content for viruses.