{"id":1420686,"date":"2022-04-05T17:45:13","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T21:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1420686"},"modified":"2022-04-05T17:45:17","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T21:45:17","slug":"report-tiktok-parent-bytedance-propped-up-prior-platform-by-scraping-content-from-instagram-snapchat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-tiktok-parent-bytedance-propped-up-prior-platform-by-scraping-content-from-instagram-snapchat\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: TikTok Parent ByteDance Propped Up Prior Platform by Scraping Content from Instagram, Snapchat"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freport-tiktok-parent-bytedance-propped-up-prior-platform-by-scraping-content-from-instagram-snapchat%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1420686&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">TikTok\u2019s Chinese parent company ByteDance made fake accounts using content it scraped from Instagram and Snapchat, according to former employees, who described the\u00a0project as one of several \u201cgrowth hacks\u201d implemented by the company.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, ByteDance scraped videos, usernames, profile pictures, and profile descriptions\u00a0from Instagram, Snapchat, and other sources, then uploaded them \u2014 without users\u2019 knowledge or consent \u2014 to Flipagram, a TikTok predecessor, according to four former employees and documents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/emilybakerwhite\/bytedance-scraped-fake-accounts-instagram-snapchat\">obtained<\/a> by BuzzFeed News.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_17833034\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2021\/09\/TikTok-Influencers-film-video.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">TikTok Influencers film video (MIGUEL MEDINA \/Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_8462342\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Mark-Zuckerberg-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8462342\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Mark-Zuckerberg-1.jpg\" alt=\"Mark Zuckerberg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mark Zuckerberg (Getty\/Saul Loeb)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Internal documents also indicated the scraping was\u00a0run by an engineering team in China, and began soon after ByteDance acquired Flipagram in 2017.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>One of the former employees told BuzzFeed News the scraping affected hundreds of thousands of accounts, and that the goal was to scrape more than 10,000 videos a day in the highest priority countries.<\/p>\n<p>Two of the former employees added that the scraped content was used to train ByteDance\u2019s \u201cFor You\u201d personalization algorithm on U.S.-based content, so that it would better reflect the preferences of U.S. users.<\/p>\n<p>One document shows how\u00a0ByteDance tried to select content that was \u201cnot too Chinese,\u201d so that it would resonate with U.S. users. Currently, the \u201cFor You\u201d algorithm powers both TikTok and its Chinese equivalent,\u00a0Douyin.<\/p>\n<p>Another \u201cgrowth hack\u201d ByteDance used to try to make Flipagram popular in 2017 reportedly involved\u00a0manipulating \u201clike\u201d and \u201cview\u201d counts for videos to make users think they were more popular than they actually were, according to three of the former employees.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, some people had even noticed their content was uploaded to Flipagram without their knowledge or consent, according to the four former employees.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>The employees told BuzzFeed the company received emails from users who said they were being impersonated on the app.<\/p>\n<p>Two of the employees added that they remember getting inquiries from parents asking why their children\u2019s content was on a platform that both they and their children had never heard of.<\/p>\n<p>The four sources said employees were told to delete the accounts that were caught on\u00a0Flipagram by the original creator, or give\u00a0the person complaining control over\u00a0them, and tell them that Flipagram cannot prevent a user (or fan) from uploading someone else\u2019s content.<\/p>\n<p>ByteDance spokesperson Jennifer Banks responded to the allegations, telling BuzzFeed, \u201cByteDance acquired Flipagram in 2017 and operated it, and subsequently Vigo, for a short time. Flipagram and Vigo ceased operations years ago and aren\u2019t connected to any current ByteDance products.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The outlet added it also reached Brian Dilley \u2014 Flipagram\u2019s chief technology officer until October 2017 \u2014 at his home to ask if the company had been scraping and reuploading content in 2017, to which he replied, \u201cNo, in fact I\u2019m positive we were not,\u201d and then ended the interview.<\/p>\n<p>Snap Inc. spokesperson Russ Caditz-Peck said, \u201cOur Terms of Service prohibit scraping and reposting public content from our services, and we implement defenses to limit such attempts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile,\u00a0Jason Grosse, a representative for Instagram\u2019s parent company Facebook (now known as Meta), said the company would not comment at this time.<\/p>\n<p><em>You can follow Alana\u00a0Mastrangelo on\u00a0<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ARmastrangelo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and Twitter at\u00a0<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ARmastrangelo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">@ARmastrangelo<\/a>, and on\u00a0<a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/alanamastrangelo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TikTok\u2019s Chinese parent company ByteDance made fake accounts using content it scraped from Instagram and Snapchat, according to former employees, who described the\u00a0project as one of several \u201cgrowth hacks\u201d implemented<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1420686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1420686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1420686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1420686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1420686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}