TikTok Plagiarism and the Politics of Citation
TikTok is a fascinating place for a researcher and writer. Everyday I learn something new about the app, and it brings up questions that are not only relevant to the app itself, but to the norms of information sharing and content creation at this moment in time. Especially in light of the recent strike of Black content creators on the beloved clock app, I have been thinking a lot about the politics of citation on TikTok and what it means to cite correctly and with care by utilizing the affordances of the TikTok platform.
Background on the #BlackTikTokStrike
For many Black content creators, TikTok and other social media platforms are a place for cultural expression and community building. However, unlike the in-person creation of community and camaraderie which tends to be more insular and interpersonal, any person can exist within a community online. In a recent blog post I discussed how the openness of the online community has resulted in the “infiltration and surveillance of Black communities both online and offline” by those who exist both within and outside of it. Specifically, cultural appropriation and the theft of Black creativity has become a hallmark of the digital era and it is quite common to hear or read stories of brands, influencers, and even publications profiting from Black content and culture. In the blog, I specifically thought about how this theft is not only a hallmark of the digital era, but something that we can trace back to slavery and the pre-colonial eras.
For Black TikTok creators, we especially see this concern when it comes to TikTok dances and trends. Especially as most Black creators do not have the same amount of followers as the most popular TikTok creators, it is easy for the most popular creators to utilize the content of others in order to popularize a dance or trend without crediting the person who actually created it. We see this topic explored in the recent media coverage of TikTok Houses like the Collab Crib and this also speaks to a quirk of the TikTok platform, because there is no reward for being first. Regardless of who begins a trend or sound on the app, any creator can hop on the trend and receive exponentially more views and followers than the person who created that trend. At the same time, the TikTok app is based on inspiration and re-creation through the creation of trends which users can emulate and follow. Therefore, I think that one way that we can begin to assist in assuring that all TikTok creators get the credit that they deserve is by creating a citation style that is recognized and utilized by all users.
Why Creators Can’t Cite Correctly on TikTok
During my college years, I worked as both a writing center tutor and a member of my college’s honor council. Way back when, I spent my years during and after graduate school teaching college students and grading their papers. So, if there is anything that I know a lot about, it’s the rules of citation and giving credit where credit is due. In particular, I have always found it fascinating how confusing citation is to many students, and how often students would plagiarize by accident. And while there are many situations in which creators on TikTok plagiarize the work of others with smaller platforms and followings than them on purpose, I think we should also think about how the same ways that students plagiarize by accident is also seen within the TikTok platform. In particular, TikTok is a platform geared towards a younger demographic, so it is important to think about how we can better educate TikTok users about the norms of citation and referencing.
In my work with students and writers I have learned that one of the easiest ways for individuals to plagiarize the work of others was simply by not knowing the citation styles or format for what they were writing. Many students had little knowledge or understanding of the difference between reference styles from APA to MLA and Chicago. Even when students did understand what type of citation style they should use, there would be quite a bit of difficulty around how to cite from a particular source (especially electronic sources). As new platforms and apps are created each year, the manuals of style that we all rely on to properly reference and give credit to others must also be updated, and those updates cannot always keep up with the times. This leaves those of us who need to cite newer platforms in a bit of a bind, forced to freestyle citations and hope for the best until the newest edition or style guide premieres.
We see this same conundrum on TikTok. Unlike the decades long histories of various reference manuals, most social media platforms were not created with a specific style of citation, and citation styles are birthed organically through user engagement with a particular platform and its affordances. For example, hyperlinks in blogs like Medium and the use of the @mention on sites such as Twitter and Facebook allow writers to reference the originators of the content that they are referencing. Over time, users agree to certain common citation styles and eventually the social media platforms themselves might also integrate those conventions into the platform and how it is used.
This is also where we see things go wrong on the TikTok platform. Users have a hard time correctly citing or referencing the work of other creators because there is no agreed upon way to cite or reference within the site. In addition, because the TikTok algorithm is so carefully curated for an individual and the communities that they belong to, it is quite possible to unintentionally create content that is similar to the content of someone who exists outside of your community.
Creating a TikTok Manual of Style
With that being said, there are multiple ways to cite content and reference creators on the TikTok app. As it was stated above, TikTok is one of many social media platforms that allow creators to @mention a user. This @mention can act as a reference to that person and their work, and it is commonly seen with TikTok trends. Also, like Twitter and the creation of the hashtag, TikTok trends can also be curated through specific hashtags, such as the most recent adult swim videos. In addition, certain trends and styles become so popular that they receive mainstream coverage in the media, therefore their originators are always already associated with a specific trend or style of content/video. For example, Antoni Bumba’s creation of “The BBL Effect” video trend.
In contrast to other social media platforms, one of the most unique (and controversial) aspects of citing on TikTok is the use of sounds and recordings. In my opinion, when a creator uses someone else's sound then that should (and could) count as a form of citation. When someone uses a sound that isn’t their own it is stated clearly at the bottom of the video (like a miniature reference list) and any user viewing their video can click on the sound that they used (similar to a hyperlink) and see the original sound and other videos that have used that sound. This use of sounds is one of the primary ways that we see trends curated on the TikTok app, and when you click on the sound it is easy to follow the popularity of a trend from creation/creator through all of the remixes and re-creations of the trend.
However, something that I have noticed in my study of TikTok comments is that there is a lot of discord around the use of sounds, and many users don’t consider using someone else’s sound to be a form of reference or citation. Many times, I have seen users call out a creator for using someone’s sound and not @mentioning that person or explicitly writing their name in the description. I find this strange, especially because it is possible to create TikTok Videos where you pass off someone else’s sound as your own simply by recording a video and then re-uploading it in a way where the original creator's sound is removed and replaced with your own. Therefore, in future I believe that more education on the platform will allow users to see the use of another person’s sound as a possible reference style/format.
Finally, certain trends become so popular that even if a user doesn’t own a sound, their ownership of the sound is stated by other users on the site and their videos become the most popular under that sound. For example, in 2020 many users have declared that the TikTok sound clip of the song “Daisy (I’m Crazy but You Like That)” by Ashnikko is “owned” by @daiseygorgeous due to the popularity of their videos under this sound. Especially because TikTok only allows 100 characters in the captions for its videos, it should also be noted that it’s not always possible for users to spend those characters on spelling out the name/trend of other users, so I offer these various citation styles as potential options that are legitimate.
The Politics of Citation and Why We Must #CiteBlackCreatives
Overall, I would hope to see users and/or the TikTok platform work on creating a citation style or reference manual for the platform that would allow users to easily give credit to their fellow creatives. From an academic perspective, there is always a politics of citation at play around who we choose to reference and give credit to and who we do not. Many times, this politics puts creators of color at a disadvantage because of those who have the most power and influence within the media and the most popular sharing platforms. Especially when social media algorithms create networks of influence that reflect social hierarchies and because of the norms of copying the content of smaller creatives, Black creatives are kept at a disadvantage within these sites. Therefore, it will be important for all of us to think about how we can better use citational styles within social media platforms to create space for honoring the contributions of creatives from all walks of life.
View this blog on Medium -
https://faitheday.medium.com/tiktok-plagiarism-and-the-politics-of-citation-755bd72644e7
