Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Tana & Brooke 'Cancelled' archive, Liv Schmidt vs. Carly Weinstein, TikTok catfish saga + TikTok adoption storytime plagiarism

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Tana & Brooke 'Cancelled' archive, Liv Schmidt vs. Carly Weinstein, TikTok catfish saga + TikTok adoption storytime plagiarism · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hi everyone, welcome to mini scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
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  I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
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  OK, before I get into the stories, I have a fun little
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  Friends is a series within our Keep Scrolling for Substack
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  newsletter where we discuss a piece of content that we found
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  particularly interesting. We love reading your comments
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  every single day on the podcast. So we wanted a place to share
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  chatting about Internet culture, not just kind of consuming it
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  through our podcast, our TikTok, our newsletter more passively.
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  So it's kind of like a book club for content.
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  So for our first edition, we will be discussing A TikTok
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  about overconsumption and the patriarchy.
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  I will insert the TikTok obviously in the show notes, but
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  I will also play it at the end of this episode.
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  So if you don't have TikTok or you don't want to open the
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  TikTok, you can listen to good at the end.
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  live. And every edition of close
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  friends will also have our opinions in it as well.
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  So go subscribe through the link in the show notes if you guys
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  want to take part in our kind of content book club.
• 1:52
  OK, the first story that I have for you guys today is that
• 1:56
  Brooke Schofield and Tana Mojo are disagreeing on what to do
• 2:00
  with old episodes of the cancelled podcast.
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  So the cancelled podcast is going viral again, with a clip
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  of Brooke and Tana discussing what to do with the episode
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  archive once the podcast is officially over.
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  In the episode, which was published on August 9th, Tana
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  questions whether all of the episodes should be deleted off
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  YouTube. Bible verse is on my main
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  YouTube channel. I don't know.
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  And then it's like, what do I do with this channel?
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  Because it was my vlog channel before now it's is it just like
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  continuing eras And then like all of a sudden I'm like doing
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  something else on this like it's just do I leave cancelled up or
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  do we delete? All of cancelled.
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  What? Why would you delete all of
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  cancelled? I don't know.
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  I'm counting on at least like 1000 bucks here in or there from
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  Adsense. I didn't even think about that.
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  Oh my God, why would we erase it?
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  Oh, do you hate me that much? No, I don't hate you.
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  I'm just saying like the era like I don't know you want to
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  delete it? I also said a lot of things on
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  cancel that I would. Love to just die.
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  What the hell? In the comments section of the
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  YouTube video, fans were surprised that this was
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  something that Tana was even considering.
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  Many felt it was disrespectful to given she helped build the
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  channel 1 user, wrote Tana. If you create another vlog
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  channel, everyone will go over to it.
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  You can't do that to Brooke. She helped build it.
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  Even if you had numbers before canceled, you both deserve to
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  make money off of the old episodes.
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  That just gave me so much anxiety for Brooke.
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  My gosh. Another wrote Brooke.
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  Please lawyer up. The fact that Tana brought up
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  deleting old episodes is crazy. This is a brand they built
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  together and Brooke is entitled to her share.
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  Nonetheless, the fans would be beyond sad with no episodes left
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  to watch. Tana's entitled attitude shocked
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  me in this app. On top of this, viewers question
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  why Tana would want to delete cancelled given it's one of her
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  most successful projects. Some people actually think it
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  has to do with the association with Brooke, given you know, how
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  she handled the situation around her racist tweets that came up
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  and the fact that like, the Internet has largely not
• 3:55
  forgiven her for that. Whereas others think maybe she
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  just wants to wipe her slate clean somehow.
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  There are obviously some people that think she has the right to
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  do it. So the cancelled podcast YouTube
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  channel was originally Tana's vlog channel and it had like 2
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  million subscribers before they started cancelled.
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  However, obviously you know, the, the channel itself has
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  grown because of the podcast like so much over the last
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  couple of years because of the podcast.
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  So some people are like, well, yes, like Brooke helped to build
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  the podcast, but also like the channel had two million
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  subscribers from Tana before. However, after receiving some
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  backlash from the audience, it seems that Tana is no longer
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  considering deleting the episodes.
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  Responding to a comment on TikTok that read Don't Delete
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  the Podcast episodes, Tanner wrote We are not.
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  Sometimes I forget that I can't just be sharing my stream of
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  consciousness. OK.
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  Yeah, I agree that there would need to be some type of buyout.
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  You know, like Tana would have to buy Brooke out of her portion
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  of the YouTube channel to even though like I know that Tana
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  started it and it was like her channel to begin with.
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  But at the end of the day, I'm sure they, well, maybe they
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  didn't, but I was going to say, I'm sure they had some type of
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  like contract in place where they both own X percentage of
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  canceled. So if you take the YouTube
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  percentage of the greater canceled brand, I think it would
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  be fair if Tana bought Brooke out from that, depending on how,
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  you know, whatever number they come to in terms of like what
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  they think it's worth. And then she can do whatever she
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  wants with that Channel. But people are definitely
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  blowing this, I think a little bit out of proportion, like they
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  were just having a conversation. But I did see a lot of feedback
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  of people being like, I can't believe like we're Privy to this
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  conversation. This is a conversation, like a
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  business conversation. You need to be having like
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  offline. Like, why did they not edit this
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  out? OK, the next way that I have for
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  you guys is I'm going to recap what is going on between Liv
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  Schmidt and Carly Weinstein. These are two New York City tick
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  talkers. I mean, I've talked about Liv
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  Schmidt here before because she is like a skinny talker, Okay,
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  so she is very problematic and she has had her accounts banned
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  like 100 different times. But the two of them, I mean, I
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  wouldn't say they're feuding, but there is like something
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  going on. So Carly Weinstein is a tech
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  talker with over 500,000 followers.
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  She's based in New York City and she makes videos basically just
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  like documenting her life. She's like a lifestyle Blogger.
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  She is kind of polarizing online.
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  Some people love her, obviously, others think she's really out of
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  touch. I guess what's new?
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  That's kind of how a lot of people feel about the New York
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  City like lifestyle tick tockers.
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  But either way, a few days ago she responded to a question on
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  her Instagram story. Somebody asked her in the
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  question box. What are your thoughts on skinny
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  society? If you're unfamiliar, skinny
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  society is a page slash like community run by Liv Schmidt.
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  The goal of the group is to help people, mostly young women lose
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  weight. But there have been many claims
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  that the techniques she promotes in the group glorify restrictive
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  eating and disordered eating. And you know, she, they became
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  super famous for saying the most unhinged things about like other
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  people's bodies and about like being skinny and placing this
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  like very strong, I guess, like moral judgement on people who
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  don't prioritize being as skinny as possible at all times.
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  So Carly responded to the question.
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  She DM Ed me once asking if she could help me lose weight.
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  It should be noted that this isn't the first time that Carly
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  has spoken up about skinny society.
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  In May of this year, for example, she shared the dangers
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  of promoting this kind of group in a TikTok.
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  Carly's response to the Instagram question sparked a
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  back and forth between the two creators.
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  Live share the DM that she sent Carly explain meaning that she
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  was just trying to be a quote UN quote girls girl.
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  This is what the DM said. I know you don't like me and I
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  know you probably don't agree with a lot of what I say, but I
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  came across your TikTok and it honestly hit me hearing how
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  uncomfortable you feel in your body.
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  I've been there more than you know.
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  I've been on Pristia. I think it's how you say it
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  since 3rd grade. I've dealt with anxiety most of
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  my life and I just want you to know it's OK to want to change
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  your body. That doesn't make you bad.
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  That doesn't make you broken. I'm so confident there's a way
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  to do this that feels private, empowering, and completely your
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  own. I never share anything.
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  We can keep this 100% confidential.
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  I don't care about any drama or differences.
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  I just hate for our opposing views to get in the way of a
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  chance to help you feel better in your own skin.
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  If you're ever open to it, I'd love to talk, even just for 30
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  minutes. Zoom or in person.
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  No agenda, no pressure, just support.
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  I'm confident I could help you in the most sustainable way with
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  my method. OK I don't know what Carly
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  posted to Prompt Live to DM her like this but unless Carly
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  literally made a TikTok that said I need somebody to help me
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  lose weight, I am looking to lose weight.
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  Please message me directly if you can help me.
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  I think this is a completely inappropriate message to send
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  anyone. It also gives like MLM.
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  Don't you think? It's like her just giving her
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  back story and being like I relate to you girly and then she
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  ends with like you know I just want to help you.
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  Let's jump on a 30 minute zoom no strings attached.
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  It gives MLM. But yeah, I'm actually like a
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  little, sometimes I'm a little bit scared to talk about Liv
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  Schmidt because she has some culty stands like she really
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  does when we talk about her or, you know, times that I've posted
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  Tik toks related to her, like the stands, the girlies, they
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  come out swinging for her. She has truly built herself like
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  a culty audience. OK, the next word that I have
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  for you guys, there is this like crazy catfish saga that has just
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  made its way onto my free page. I don't really know how to
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  describe. Like, I don't have a headline
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  for it. OK, it's a little convoluted.
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  So like, let me start from the beginning.
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  At the end of last month, TikTok creator Samantha Mack shared a
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  story about how she ran the Boston Marathon.
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  And after that, she received a message from someone claiming
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  that he had found someone using her photos.
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  The woman was allegedly taking Samantha's photos.
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  And then editing her face onto them.
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  The video is currently sitting at 5.3 million views and the
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  comments section is flooded with support of Samantha.
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  Samantha then went on to share screenshots of the photoshopped
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  pictures with her followers. The edited pictures included
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  action shots from the marathon and also a picture with
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  Samantha's boyfriend. But the person photoshopping the
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  picture didn't even change the boyfriend's face.
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  But now this is where it gets a bit twisted.
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  Another TikTok user named Ali went on to respond to a comment
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  on one of Samantha's videos. OK, so there was like a comment
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  on one of Samantha's videos and Ali responds to this comment.
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  So Ali says she is the face that is being edited on to Samantha's
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  body. OK, so you know people like I
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  said, there's 5.3 million people that have seen this video that
• 10:33
  have seen allies face thinking that Allie is obviously
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  photoshopping herself onto Samantha's body.
• 10:38
  OK, So she says I am the face. OK, but she claims that she is
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  not the one doing the editing, so she shares that she has had
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  someone use her photos for the last six years.
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  She says she has no idea who this person is.
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  And they're not just stealing photos, they're also like
• 10:59
  fabricating stories about people in Allie's life.
• 11:02
  So there is like 1 central account, the woman quote UN
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  quote, look we don't know who it is, but like the person's name
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  on the account is Mallory. So this person Mallory, it's I'm
• 11:12
  sure it's not their real name, but this person Mallory is
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  basically taking Samantha's body and editing Ali's face onto
• 11:20
  Samantha's body in various pictures and using these two
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  things together to create Mallory.
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  Samantha then commented on Ali's TikTok saying she knows who it
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  is. She also posted a follow up
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  video saying that she and Ally had spoken about the situation
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  privately. Samantha confirmed that they
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  know who the culprit is. Still, they don't want to reveal
• 11:41
  it online because Ally is considering taking legal action
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  because this has been going on for six years.
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  She also did confirm that neither of them know the person
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  personally because that was like, actually people believed
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  Ally, like right out the gate. You know, I think that's kind of
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  rare on TikTok. If somebody's out here, like, I
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  know that's my face, but I promise I'm not the one
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  photoshopping my face on this person's body.
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  You might be like, OK, sure. But people believed her right
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  out the gate. But a lot of the comments were
• 12:07
  like, Ali 100%, this has got to be someone in your life because
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  she said that they knew like details about her family and
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  stuff. And she was like, I want to
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  press charges. I just like, don't know how.
• 12:16
  So yes, it was confirmed that they neither of them know this
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  person in real life. Ali has now shared an update
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  saying she sent a message to the woman who was using her photos
• 12:25
  photos. And to Ali surprise, probably
• 12:27
  because this is all blowing up, she actually responded.
• 12:30
  They ended up having a conversation which concluded
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  with the fake accounts being deleted.
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  Responding to a TikTok comment, Ali explained that the person
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  justified using her photos quote basically due to poor self-image
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  and feeling like pretending to be someone else was an escape.
• 12:46
  Honestly, like that is really sad.
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  And I mean, I think we all know that like people who truly
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  catfish like this extensively, especially for like 6 plus
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  years, doing it with the same, like creating the same likeness,
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  you know, like this Mallory figure.
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  Like of course, like this is somebody who is using this
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  character of Mallory as an escape.
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  I'm actually just so surprised this got resolved so quickly,
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  especially because Ali's been dealing with it for six years.
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  But I guess it blowing up. But I guess it all blowing up,
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  like at some point, the catfish was going to have to either
• 13:18
  like, fess up or just like delete everything because it was
• 13:21
  getting like, too big. And you do not want the wrath of
• 13:24
  like Internet sleuths coming for you because people would have
• 13:26
  found this person if this kept going.
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  And she hadn't have like, kind of taken accountability and
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  taken everything down, you know, like, this would have kept
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  going. And I bet you in like a matter
• 13:36
  of days, this person's identity would have been identified by
• 13:39
  Internet sleuths and be doxed all over the Internet.
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  So this is honestly for the best.
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  OK. And the last story that I have
• 13:45
  for you guys is also kind of niche.
• 13:47
  I know you guys love a niche Internet story.
• 13:49
  There is kind of like a story time like dramas.
• 13:53
  Actually, I feel like an inappropriate word to use in
• 13:56
  this story. But saga situation going on.
• 13:58
  So a creator named Zav Bav has found herself at the center of
• 14:02
  controversy after plagiarizing from a journalist.
• 14:06
  Sav was adopted from China when she was a baby.
• 14:08
  As a result of the one child policy, she ended up getting
• 14:12
  adopted and was raised in Ireland.
• 14:14
  She has made quite a few videos about her adoption story, but
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  she generally makes like vlog style content as an Irish girl
• 14:20
  who has moved to Florida. In one story, Zav is seemingly
• 14:23
  getting ready for the day, reflecting on her experience
• 14:26
  growing up as someone who was adopted.
• 14:28
  In the video, she is candid about growing up as a minority
• 14:31
  and her feelings towards her birth parents, but practically
• 14:35
  everything that she said was plagiarized from an article that
• 14:38
  was published in the Times. The author was a woman named
• 14:42
  Esme Hewitt. This isn't to say that Zav
• 14:44
  obviously like didn't have a similar experience, but she
• 14:48
  literally read the article word for word and then passed that
• 14:52
  story off as her own. The video has been deleted at
• 14:56
  the time of recording, so Esme took to TikTok to bring
• 14:58
  attention to how her article had been plagiarized and to also
• 15:02
  provide proof. Esme shared her reaction to
• 15:04
  seeing this, where she naturally commented on the video to call
• 15:07
  her out, and this led to Zab's partner responding to Esme
• 15:11
  calling Esme self absorbed. She also included screenshots in
• 15:15
  her TikTok. Zab has since gone on to
• 15:16
  apologize for the post, saying that she is quote deeply sorry
• 15:20
  for using someone else's words in a video to tell my story.
• 15:23
  She also says that she has spoken to Esme directly.
• 15:26
  There were many social media users who were dissatisfied with
• 15:29
  her apology. They felt like it was
• 15:30
  inappropriate for her to try and like justify her actions by
• 15:33
  saying that they were true to her experience.
• 15:36
  OK, so I do think like, I know that Zav like took to TikTok and
• 15:40
  apologized for what happened. I mean, I guess maybe to like
• 15:43
  the adoption community, they could be receiving that apology.
• 15:47
  But I think in general, the apology is for Esme.
• 15:50
  However, also like plagiarism is such an issue.
• 15:54
  I mean, I've talked about this so many times.
• 15:55
  It is such an issue in the digital space.
• 15:58
  There is actually an entire epidemic of podcasters who
• 16:03
  plagiarize word for word other people's articles.
• 16:05
  So like this is a TikTok situation.
• 16:07
  But I know a lot of Internet culture journalists were dealing
• 16:10
  with that like years ago when Internet reporting, like
• 16:13
  Internet culture reporting was kind of like first on the cusp
• 16:16
  of going mainstream. And a lot of podcasters would
• 16:19
  genuinely like take their articles, like journalists
• 16:22
  articles and just read them as if it was their scripts.
• 16:25
  And you guys know, we have had a plagiarism situation as well
• 16:28
  with a really big YouTube where they took a script from our deep
• 16:32
  dive and they basically put it into ChatGPT.
• 16:34
  And it was almost word for word as well.
• 16:36
  I mean, I don't know if it was ChatGPT, but they put it into
• 16:38
  somewhere, some type of AI and it came out as, yeah, basically
• 16:42
  our script. Essentially it's intellectual
• 16:44
  property. Like, it is like our work, like,
• 16:46
  the amount of time and effort and energy and money that
• 16:50
  businesses, individual contributors, like journalists,
• 16:54
  creatives, writers put into this work is outrageous.
• 16:57
  And for people to just be able to like, RIP it off like that.
• 17:00
  And, you know, thankfully, as Mae saw this, you know, like,
• 17:04
  thankfully she was able to kind of call this out and be like,
• 17:07
  that's my work. Like, and that is such a
• 17:10
  personal thing to plagiarize. And a lot of journalists get
• 17:14
  really attached to their work, even if it's not directly, like,
• 17:17
  related to them. But this is her adoption story.
• 17:21
  That's wild. But I actually like how these
• 17:25
  last two stories of like, niche Internet drama, I like how both
• 17:29
  of them have ended with a resolution.
• 17:32
  Like, they both had friction. There was like, you know,
• 17:35
  situations that were not great. And then both of these stories
• 17:38
  ended with the people involved having a conversation and
• 17:42
  resolving it behind the scenes. It's unfortunate that these
• 17:45
  situations have to be taken to the Internet to begin with.
• 17:47
  But I also understand in these cases why they do because they
• 17:51
  were like initially posted on the Internet, you know.
• 17:53
  So it's like, well, of course this alley girl is not going to
• 17:56
  just let 5.3 million people think that she is photoshopping
• 17:59
  her own face onto this other person's body to be like, look,
• 18:03
  I ran the Boston Marathon. And same thing with this other
• 18:06
  story. Like of course Esme is not going
• 18:08
  to just let her personal adoption story that would have
• 18:12
  probably been very difficult for her to write and publish so
• 18:16
  publicly just be plagiarized by someone else on TikTok.
• 18:20
  Anyways guys, that's it for mini scroll today.
• 18:22
  Thank you so much for listening. Please remember to rate, review
• 18:24
  and subscribe. I love you guys.
• 18:27
  Please watch the TikTok at the end.
• 18:30
  You'll ever notice how it's only overconsumption when we're
• 18:32
  talking about women. La Boo boos, matcha purses,
• 18:35
  blind boxes, etcetera. But like when men spend
• 18:39
  thousands of dollars on hundreds of thousands of pairs of
• 18:41
  sneakers, it's not over. I've never seen anybody use the
• 18:44
  word overconsumption when it comes to men collecting things.
• 18:48
  Ever. So I'm gonna need y'all to just
• 18:52
  like, layoff of women for a second on the whole
• 18:55
  overconsumption thing because I'm starting to feel like
• 18:57
  there's an unnecessary double standard.
• 18:59
  Are people over consuming things?
• 19:00
  Absolutely. But we need to clock everybody
• 19:04
  who's over consuming and not just women, because that's
• 19:08
  weird. And I feel like the patriarchy
• 19:11
  really actually ruins everyone's perceptions of everything.
• 19:15
  And everybody always thinks that we're making society better by
• 19:17
  clocking people for different things.
• 19:18
  But often time it's like misogynistic and falls into the
• 19:22
  umbrella of just feeding the patriarchy, which is really
• 19:25
  scary. So just food for thought, that's
• 19:29
  all. I think people should just think
• 19:31
  about that a little give. Us a comment on what you guys
• 19:33
  think about it 'cause we will include it in our newsletter the
• 19:35
  coming up. I love you guys and I will talk
• 19:37
  to you tomorrow. Bye.