TikTok Clone Zynn is Removed From Google Play Store Following Plagiarism Claims

Zynn, an short-form video app much like TikTok has been effectively removed from the Google Play Store.

According to Wired, the Chinese video app has been pulled from the store following a number of concerning claims that TikTok users found their content stolen and posted on Zynn.

Zynn has only been available to download for a couple of weeks since launching in May. It quickly rose through the ranks on both the App Store and Google Play Store by incentivizing users to watch videos and recruit friends to install the app by paying them. The legitimacy behind this reward scheme has never been confirmed, however, it didn’t stop Zynn from receiving over 3 million downloads.

In the following weeks, high-profile TikTok content creators discovered their content was being posted on Zynn without their consent. Max Mazurek, a Polish dancer with almost 190,000 followers on TikTok discovered that a profile impersonating him with 25,000 followers was active on Zynn. His claims that his content was stolen was substantiated when he said Zynn was not even available to download in Poland.

Other creators such as Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae have also had their content appear on Zynn without their knowledge. TikTok is not the only platform certain Zynn accounts appear to plagiarize. Content stemming from Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube have appeared as clips on the app. When speaking to Wired, a social media account claiming to represent Zynn acknowledged the takedown and said the company is “in communications with Google and working to fix this ASAP.”

An interesting tidbit of Zynn lies behind its developer. The company behind Zynn is listed as Owlii, a competitor of TikTok parent company ByteDance. The two companies have a long-standing rivalry as both are respected tech companies in China. However, ByteDance broke through to a global market when launching TikTok in 2016 and saw its rising success in 2020.

Currently, Zynn is still available on the App Store.

 

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