'Our ukulele videos were ripped off on TikTok'
Roz HallA couple who create ukulele tutorial videos on YouTube were "shocked" to discover a fake profile of them had gone viral on TikTok.
Roz and Graham Hall, from Eaglescliffe, Stockton, have been running the Eagle Ukes group for the last seven years and began creating videos during lockdown.
It came as a complete surprise to them to be told by a relative they had gone viral on TikTok, with millions of views.
Mr Hall, 64, said they "could not believe it" as they did not have a profile on the social media site.
When the couple discovered their fake profile, they found whoever created it had taken pictures of them from Facebook.
"We were shocked and I was angry," Mr Hall said.
"I became more angry when I looked into it and whoever it was had taken a picture of me and my wife and used it.
"They had taken 35 of our videos and clipped them down."
Roz HallIt took the ukulele players two weeks of reporting the videos to TikTok before they were taken down.
During that time, the fake profile reached 14,000 followers and one video reached 1.2m views.
Mr Hall added: "We went to TikTok and said we were being impersonated.
"Initially, they said that they could not see any violations but we kept reporting the videos and so did our followers.
"I thought 'no matter how long it takes, I'm going to get this person closed down'.
"We decided it was not worth getting a solicitor, but thankfully TikTok began investigating and took down the profile."
The couple said they wanted to warn other creators about not having high privacy on their YouTube videos.
They have now set up their own TikTok account to try to reach the younger audience who were enjoying their content.