Do you want to hear something crazy?
Just as I announced that I’m scaling back my presence as an -for lack of a better word- “influencer,” you may have noticed that my Instagram account was suspended.
It happened because someone had hacked it. You can’t just call Instagram to have it restored. There’s a waiting period and a whole process which is too boring to even mention.
But how did someone gain access to my account? The simple answer is: because I did something stupid.
HOW I GOT HACKED
I was watching a documentary on Netflix when I received a message on WhatsApp from Instagram notifying me that, because my account was in good standing, I was now eligible to receive a blue checkmark. I just needed to click on a link and fill out a form and all would be taken care of.
After filling out the form I received a code to confirm my identity. I typed in the code and then Instagram sent me a message saying that something was going on on my account that was going against community guidelines. Due to this suspicious activity my account was suspended.
Then I received a mysterious WhatsApp message saying:
Oddly enough, no amount was mentioned or a way to pay it. Of course I would not have paid a penny to these crooks, and instead I reported them to WhatsApp.
MY INITIAL RESPONSE
I notified all my contacts on social media about the hack, and now I am getting all kinds of messages from people I don’t know, about folks or services they recommend that can supposedly restore my account. There must be a whole anti-hacking industry I didn’t realize existed!
Instagram told me to wait at least 24 hours before I can try to access my account again, so that’s what I’m doing while keeping my fingers crossed. I don’t want to open a new account as some have suggested, because I do not want to lose my 5 thousand 5 hundred followers. It took me many years to get such a following.
We’re now four days into the hack, and I’m still not allowed back.
I guess the moral of the story is obvious:
Don’t watch any documentaries.
Or rather… don’t do anything stupid while you’re distracted watching documentaries.
Always check the source of the message before you respond.
TRYING OUT TIKTOK
I’m a big fan of turning problems into opportunities so I thought now would be a good time to finally give this TikTok thing a try. I never warmed up to the platform after they used Bev Standing’s voice without her permission, but since Bev settled in court I was less troubled by the idea. I mean, Bev still uses it so it can’t be that bad…
There are lots of young voice overs on TikTok, and that’s why I recorded a short video about winning auditions. Guess what? As we speak it has been viewed about 800 times, which is way more than any Instagram video I ever posted. I was blown away!
In spite of my unexpected success I’m already thinking of leaving the platform. Does that sound crazy? Why not keep a winning streak going?
Here’s the thing… My much appreciated voice over colleague Paul Schmidt pointed me to the TikTok Terms of Service. Chapter 7 talks about User-Generated content. TikTok states:
“Any User Content will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary.”
That means: you don’t own your own stuff!!!
ANYONE CAN USE YOUR CONTENT
TikTok goes on to say:
“You or the owner of your User Content still own the copyright in User Content sent to us, but by submitting User Content via the Services, you hereby grant us an unconditional irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully transferable, perpetual worldwide license to use, modify, adapt, reproduce, make derivative works of, publish and/or transmit, and/or distribute and to authorize other users of the Services and other third-parties to view, access, use, download, modify, adapt, reproduce, make derivative works of, publish and/or transmit your User Content in any format and on any platform, either now known or hereinafter invented.”
This almost sounds like some of the clauses in the Terms of Service once used by voices dot com. Now, I understand that TikTok has to have the legal framework to share my videos (and yours) with all the other users of the platform. I’m okay with that. If you can’t publish and share content on social media, what’s the point? But why would I need to give TikTok such a broad perpetual and worldwide license to use or modify my content without ever paying me a dime?
Who knows what TikTok will do with it? They could sell it to a third party who would use it to create a voice clone. That wouldn’t be such a big deal to regular users, but I happen to make a living with my voice. I get paid to open my mouth and I don’t want it to be used without pay or permission by some obscure third party.
AM I READING THIS RIGHT?
Of course I could take it to court, but TikTok would say that -by agreeing to their terms of service- I have given them permission to use my content worldwide, royalty free, in perpetuity.
I’m not a lawyer, but am I reading this right?
fortunately, I happen to know a good lawyer who’s also a voice over. His name is Robert Sciglimpaglia and he’s the author of Voice Over Legal. Rob had this to say:
“You are reading too much into this. You are giving them a license to use the material you upload to the platform. It says you still own the Copyright. If you own the Copyright then they cannot legally clone your voice from those files that belong to you as owner. Plus a license can always be revoked as Copyright holder especially when nothing of value or “consideration” is being exchanged with TikTok to allow them to use your videos on their platform. This is nothing like the TOS on the online casting site because that site said by using the service you assigned your Copyright and ownership of the files you created to them.”
Is Robert’s explanation enough for you to stay on the platform, or perhaps sign up for it? Or are you (like some people) afraid that the Chinese government may be spying on you when you use TikTok?
Let me know in the comments!
By the way, click here if you’re looking for me on TikTok.
UPDATE
Instagram let me know that they have permanently suspended my account for violating community guidelines which is nonsense. They sent me the message in Turkish which makes me believe my hackers are in Turkey. I now have a new profile on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenethervoice/ Alternatively, you can scan the QR code below.
Related Posts
Bev Takes on TikTok, and Why that Matters to You
BEV STANDING: THE 2022 UNICORN
THE STORY OF THE STOLEN VOICE
DISCOURAGING, DEMONIZING, AND ALIENATING NEWBIES
WE NEED MORE CRITICAL THINKERS
HOW TO MAKE IT AS A NEW VOICE ACTOR WITH NO CREDITS AND LITTLE EXPERIENCE
SOVAS or ONE VOICE AWARDS? WHICH ONE TO CHOOSE?
CAN YOU SUPPORT SAG-AFTRA AS WELL AS FIVERR?
I have never had a Tik Tok account. Mainly because the work I am going after doesn’t use the platform. Also, the whole thing a couple of years ago about the U.S. government wanting to ban it, I figured I would just not bother and put effort into other social media. So when Paul sent the warning this week I was thankful I had never signed up. One other recommendation I have is to change your password to a very difficult one on all platforms and do it every 3 months. And do not respond to anyone pretending to be connected with the platform asking you for any personal information. I hope this helps.
This was certainly useful, Steven. Thank you! I just did a deeper morning dive into everything that’s on TikTok, and most of it seems to be short and shallow sensationalist content and a big waste of time.
Wow, Paul, I’m so sorry that you’re in a kind of “social media purgatory.” That sucks.
I would recommend staying off Tik-Tok. A very reputable IT guy here in Cincinnati, Dave Hatter, has said that it’s spyware. His company, Intrust IT (intrust-it.com) has received local awards for their company’s services and he does a regular Friday morning segment on a talk show here in Cincinnati on WKRC radio. On multiple occasions he’s commented that it’s a dangerous site that is influenced by the CCP.
Thanks for the advice, Rob. I have nothing to hide, so I’m not so afraid of Chinese spyware. America is filled with surveillance cameras, so I am being spied on all the time (well, maybe not in rural Vermont where I live). My wife and I both own iPhones and last night we were discussing backpacks. The minute we opened our phones we both saw ads for…. backpacks. And this happens regularly. Should I now be afraid of Tim Cook and his company?
Looking at TikTok’s shallow, stupid and sensationalist content is enough reason for me to cancel my account. Sorry, China. One less person to spy on!
That is a bit scary! I had something similar with regards to a garage door bottom gasket.
We have Alexas in our home that we use primarily for turing on and off some of the lights in the house but we also use it as our intercom – me from the man-cave/studio and my wife in her office on the 2nd floor opposite side of the house.
But we really have given up much of our privacy…
I’m older than you are and I’m quickly becoming tired of the drain of social media. I seldom even promote my own podcast (I Learned About Flying From That) on my 2 pages. And I really SHOULD be doing that, since it’s a sponsored podcast!
Thanks for your continued blogging and reasonable, sensible, and interesting articles!
You’re welcome, Rob. I just turned 60, but I feel like I’m 17 inside. The response to my blog posts is usually not earth shattering, but now that I’ve posted about being hacked, all kinds of strangers respond by offering to restore my account. Of course there’s more dubious links to click which I will never do again!
…sorry for the bit of bad grammar on that comment…
I’m not a lawyer, either, but it seems your understanding is entirely correct. In fact, for our own contracts, maybe we should use TikTok’s language, with the word “not” added.
To all your concerns, add the China relationship, which PRC says is not controlling but I’m not so sure. We know how little PRC respects intellectual property.
I wonder if Meta (Facebook/Instagram/etc), and others don’t have similar traps. From early FB days, I may recall that they do.
Like most people I just don’t have the time or the energy to read all the small print. The question I am asking myself this morning is: What am I doing all of this for? Why even be on a platform like TikTok? I want to help and inspire people who wish to pursue a career in voice overs, and I’ve been told that the younger generation thinks Facebook is for middle aged farts, and Insta is no longer cool. And do i want TikTok to own my content? Absolutely not!
I’m mildly addicted to videos on Facebook, and it seems many are copied from TikTok, without permission. Also observed, and mentioned in some comments: sometimes a usurper will add a comment that is technically all wrong — to generate lots of “discussion” correcting the post. Which, it is suggested, pumps up the number of participants, and gets the property thief more money.
The trick is to elicit engagement to make content seem more relevant and interesting. I know there’s a lot of cross posting going on (I do it myself), so the same author will publish the same content on different platforms.
Paul, my own, lovely, in-house contracts lawyer agrees that their TOS gives them “permission to use (your) content worldwide, royalty free, in perpetuity.” To paraphrase, the TOS does not grant them ownership of your content, but it grants license so broad as to approximate (my word) ownership. There’s “discussion” as to whether “derivative use” could include creating an AI voice… But generally, there’s some necessity for that kind of language – and as one of Paul Schmidt’s commentators noted, other platforms use similar language. It may be inescapable.
The metaphor that comes to mind, since I’m at Cape Cod right now, is that we’re swimming in waters sharks are known to frequent… maybe, stay on the safer side of the peninsula! Here, that means go sailing in Nantucket Sound, and avoid the Atlantic side of Monomoy Island – which sucks… used to be great fun to play in the full surf there, before the seals arrived, and the great whites followed. On social media, it’d be interesting to check the privacy policies, to see what restrictions they do or don’t place on the rights so broadly claimed in the terms of service.
It’s nice to have an in-house lawyer, Paul. With everything that’s coming our way in terms of AI and such, all of us are going to need one! The dilemma I have is that I want to reach as many people as I can with my content, but I want to retain ownership as the creator. And if it’s being used by a third partly, I deserve to be fairly compensated and I want to be the one giving permission to use it. This is affecting all content creators: writers, composers, videographers, photographers, singer-songwriters.
We can’t move toward a world in which everything is up for grabs and it’s a free for all. Just clone it, copy it, steal it and make it your own. There’s the notion of intellectual property rights, protected trade marks, copyrights et cetera.
I wish that a lawyer would analyze the T of S of every popular social media platform, and warn us about the potential problems that are written into the text.
I totally get being distracted – happens to me all the time. But for anyone wanting to know the warning signs, they’re there… right from “Hello Dear User!” (an odd way for a platform to address someone it knows – why not by name?)
The biggest giveaway is the URL they asked you to click: https://business-centerlive.com – why would Instagram, a Meta company, be using a weird domain like that?
And then the final giveaway is the address at the bottom, both in the way it’s formatted (Instagram. Facebook Inc, 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025 USA) and the fact that the parent company is no longer known as Facebook, Inc, but as Meta.
Then again, there but for the grace of God…
You couldn’t be more right, Mike. Thanks for pointing out all the obvious warning signs I ignored. Why would Instagram even contact me on WhatsApp?
You just feel victimized.
Right after Elon took over Twitter, my main account got flagged for IMPERSONATING…and was suspended. That was many months ago, and no relenting despite my asking for it to be reinstated. No explanation of who or how or what I was impersonating. 12,000 followers gone.
Social Media can sting.
—-dave courvoisier
Ouch… 12K, and no explanation? I think journalists receive poop emoji’s from Twitter (or “X”) when they do an inquiry. It’s crazy. I’m glad I left Twitter as soon as Musk took over. I lost about 5000 followers, but it was worth it.
I have a difficult time seeing social media as anything other than a soul-sucking distraction and mind-numbing detriment to society. I told a friend that I really don’t like promoting myself on a certain platform. When they asked “why”? I replied, “I don’t like swimming in sewers.” Oversimplistic and not entirely fair, since I’m sure I could attract more attention if I worked harder at using them properly, but I don’t see how anyone can see the rise of social media as a net positive.
For me It’s an easy and cheap way to stay in touch with friends, my community, and with my family in the Netherlands. As always, a small minority of ill-willed people are messing it up for a vast majority of people with good intentions. I refuse to let the bad guys win!
I agree about using FB when it comes to staying in touch and it’s not like I don’t do any promotions at all, but I often feel like holding my nose when I do.
Well if they want all that up front Paul , before agreeing send an invoice for a couple of million bucks or more to cover your future losses in that regard and once that is agreed upon go ahead 😝Otherwise ? Fuggetddabout it!!!
I could be a rich man!
You are reading too much into this. You are giving them a license to use the material you upload to the platform. It says you still own the Copyright. If you own the Copyright then they cannot legally clone your voice from those files that belong to you as owner. Plus a license can always be revoked as Copyright holder especially when nothing of value or “consideration” is being exchanged with TikTok to allow them to use your videos on their platform. This is nothing like the TOS on the online casting site because that site said by using the service you assigned your Copyright and ownership of the files you created to them.
Thank you for weighing in, Rob. If there’s one person I trust in legal matters, it is you. I have to admit that the legalese is often dense and confusing, especially to a non-native speaker like me. I am happy you could clear things up.
PS thanks for subscribing to my blog!
My pleasure!!