South Koreans have voiced privacy concerns after learning that users of China’s version of TikTok have been recording unauthorized footage of people in public places in South Korea.
The author claimed to have downloaded the Chinese TikTok app due to an interest in Chinese celebrities. However, this led to the discovery that the Chinese TikTok platform is full of unauthorized recordings of people on the streets and subways of South Korea—where none of their faces or identifying features are blurred out, in violation of South Korean law.
“I had to blur out those faces myself!” the author said when sharing screenshots of the unauthorized footage in the post.
Photo-taking in South Korea is subject to personality rights, including the “Right to Privacy” and the “Right to Publicity.”
South Korean content is popular among Chinese TikTok users. Videos with themes such as “Korean clothing,” “Korean daily wear,” “Korean street snap,” and “Korean style wear” usually get lots of views and interactions.
However, a large number of videos on Chinese TikTok show unauthorized images of members of the public, revealing their faces and even sometimes highlighting certain parts of their bodies.
Kim also pointed out, “If the [unauthorized] photo or video highlights certain parts of the female body, it could also violate [South Korea’s] ‘Sexual Violence Prevention and Victims Protection Act.’”