‘Let Me Hide Under a Hole’: Conservative Dating App ‘The Right Stuff’ Appropriates Popular TikToker’s Video
The frankly embarrassing conservative dating app The Right Stuff—known for being unable to attract women to the platform and for asking users how they feel about January 6th, quite possibly getting some of them arrested as a result—has now resorted to using TikToks made by people who oppose everything they stand for in an attempt to promote their brand.
In a Tiktok posted to their page, The Right Stuff paired a video by popular TikToker Ayamé, with the caption “sing if you like them,” alongside a series of Republican figures. The two moments she falls silent (indicating negative feelings) feature Democrats while the moment she’s loudest (meaning a strong degree of “like”) has Donald Trump come up on the other side of the screen.
Ayamé’s original video was made as part of a duet with popular actors appearing on the right side of the screen. While she did make her side available as a capcut template—something that allows other TikTokers to use her video as a means of displaying their own preferences about any number of topics without having to sing along themselves—this use by The Right Stuff to promote their brand was absolutely not what she had in mind. Especially as a lot of viewers initially thought she’d made the video expressly for The Right Stuff and was either an app user herself or otherwise supporting their brand.
Fortunately for Ayamé, other users were quick to call out The Right Stuff for using her video this way, calling them “snakes,” pointing out that she “definitely didn’t approve this message”, and that this was in no way an official Ayamé endorsement of their brand or a reflection of her politics. Ayamé was also able to make a duet clarifying her position a few days after The Right Stuff uploaded their version. Her duet came with the captions “I can’t believe this is how they’re using my capcut template” and “let me just hide under a hole now”, making it pretty clear just how embarrassing she found their use of her work.
While her fans are calling on her to sue, unfortunately, Tiktok, social media, and copyright law don’t work that way. The Right Stuff has the legal, if not moral, right to use her capcut template like this. Once you’ve made something available as a capcut template, any TikTok user can use it, enabling brands and content creators like this to take work from people who don’t support them and turn it to their advantage. Ayamé’s managed to protect her reputation but we’re likely to see a lot more of this sort of thing going forward.
(featured image: screenshot)
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