TikTok has confirmed that it gave a fake Kendall Jenner account a blue verification tick by accident. On Monday, the well-known member of the Kardashian clan posted her first-ever TikTok video, only for it to get deleted less than 24 hours later.
It was later revealed that TikTok was deceived into thinking that was really her when it was just someone pretending to be her.
This oversight is a bit concerning. Fan and parody accounts for public figures and celebrities are a common sight on other social media sites, and a breakdown in a typically well-oiled system like this is definitely cause for concern.
All public figures and celebrities rely on the blue verification tick so that their fans can tell if it’s really them or not.
The video that Jenner posted on Monday quickly attracted a lot of attention, and the account itself amassed as many as 500,000 TikTok fans within two hours. However, just one day later, the account had been removed.
Once it was investigated, it was confirmed that the account was indeed a fake. For the day that it was on TikTok, it posted two pieces of content – one of the model in front of a mirror, and another of her dancing with pink streamers.
It was soon discovered that neither of these videos is new and has been used already on Kendall’s Instagram Stories in 2019.
Instagram Stories disappear from Instagram profiles after 24 hours, but despite this, there are plenty of fan accounts that screenshot, save, and then share this type of content with others. Many celebrities from Taylor Swift to David Dobrik have fan accounts on various social media sites.
It’s not currently clear how the account on TikTok was given the checkmark. TikTok says that it awards checkmarks when it has verified that the account belongs to the user it represents.
Naturally, TikTok has a system for working out if accounts are legitimate or not when it comes to public figures and celebrities. This helps users make informed choices about the profiles that they choose to follow.
A breakdown in how TikTok verifies its users could mean issues for TikTok as it continues to try and establish a foothold in an otherwise extremely competitive industry.
TikTok has only been in operation for a year and a half, but as you may already know, it’s growth has been exponential. It is particularly popular with the younger generation, who have made the most of its video features, which include being able to dub popular songs over content and include fun, creative filters.
TikTok as a whole is now a viral sensation, but if it wants to keep doing well among its users, it will need to make sure that it has strategies in place that enable it to identify the authenticity of its users correctly.
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