How to spam TikTok (for free)

An entire ecosystem devoted to helping people create, post and profit from nonsensical videos has appeared online. New reporting from 404 Media reveals some influencers are making more than $1 million a year by selling courses and tutorials on how to take advantage of TikTok and YouTube’s monetisation programmes. Because both platforms pay creators for views and have highly reactive, trend-driven algorithms, it’s not difficult to feed them the type of content they’re primed to gobble up and promote. That said, Musa Mustafa – who started off editing videos for the mega-influencer known as Sneako – charges $40 per month for this knowledge. Here it is for free: start with an already viral social media clip or a snippet from a television show or video game, layer something else on top (like a tweet, “Would you rather?” prompt, Reddit post or other random image), add a voiceover or soundtrack, then stitch it all together and hit publish. Until recently, making this type of video would require multiple software programmes. Now anyone can post hundreds of videos from their phone – in seconds – using AI-powered tools… increasing the risk of deep fakes aimed at stoking fear, inciting violence and threatening democracy.