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Published 19:39 IST, June 10th 2020

Fact check: Did TikTok founder Zhang Yiming say Indian Tiktok users were 'unstable'?

An image quoting TikTok founder is being circulated all over the web. Here is a fact check on TikTok founder Zhang Yiming's statement about Indian users.

Reported by: Surabhi Sabat
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Origin

According to certain social media forwards, the Tiktok founder Zhang Yiming was found stating that he has created the mobile app Tiktok so that it could entertain those people who are 'jobless' and 'unstable'. The social media post when on to say that the Tiktok founder said that he never expected so many of 'these kinds of people' in India. 

Tiktok is a smartphone app which allows its users to create short videos without any hassle and share it with their friends as well as the whole world. But following the current "YouTube vs Tiktok" feud as well as the "ban Chinese products in India" hype, the Tiktok app saw a sudden decline in its PlayStore rating. Since then, many videos and images are seen spreading all over social media in India suggesting that people should uninstall Tiktok. Check out one such instance where many Indians recently received some form of this viral image. Take a look. 

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Image courtesy: Twitter forwards

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Image courtesy: Twitter forwards

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Google Trend analysis

Here is a Google trend analysis on the Tiktok founder's statement about Indian Tiktok users. The trends were found to be peaked at 100 percentile on June 5th. This indicates that many people may have read and even forwarded the same throughout India. Note: This trends analysis was done for only the India region. 

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Image courtesy: Google Trends

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Fact Check on Tiktok founder's statement

  • Republic World did a Fact Check on Tiktok founder Zhang Yiming's apparent statement that was being circulated all over the web and found it to be False
  • The statement which was allegedly given by Tiktok founder Zhang was nowhere to be found in any official source or portals throughout the web. No such interviews were found to be available from Tiktok's official Twitter account nor in any news or media outlets as well. 
  • The possibility of such an aggressive statement by the owner is itself too unlikely to be true. However, one website called ghgossip.com was seen to have released an article stating the same on May 20th. Here is a snip of the article. However, the authenticity of the article is highly questionable. 
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Image courtesy: ghgosssip website

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Zhang Yiming is the TikTok founder who previously founded ByteDance in 2012. TikTok is owned and operated by Chinese company ByteDance which is one of the world's most valuable startups. The 36-year-old Zhang Yiming is credited for paving the way teens now use social media via the TikTok app.

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19:39 IST, June 10th 2020