In the category of how technology can be fun, yet dangerous, a 19 year old college student alleges that the dating app Meete took a video she innocently posted on TikTok of her high school graduation, then “overlayed it with graphics advertising the app, and added a voiceover to make it appear she was saying ‘Are you looking for a friend with benefits? This app shows you women around you who are looking for some fun. You can video chat with them.’”
Unfortunately, the student had no idea this was happening until another student who had met her showed her the video. The other student took screen shots of the content and provided it to her. She hired a lawyer who hired an investigator to obtain additional information.
According to her lawyer, “they wanted viewers of these advertisements, and candidly this is pretty clearly targeted at male viewers—to have their eye caught by someone they may know or recognize…and that’s part of what makes it so disturbing.” He believes other women’s content has been “misappropriated” and they have no idea that this is happening.
The student alleges that the company used geotargeting to serve the ads on social media platforms to users near the student, “including men in her own dormitory.” According to CyberScoop, “the allegations, if proven, offer another example of how modern technology has made it easier than ever today for bad actors to imitate, objectify, profit off and harass individuals, often women.”
It is another example of how posting innocent content to the world can be used by deceitful individuals for harm, and how deepfakes and altered content are becoming more prevalent.