Popular dancer targeted by online impersonators again

Christina Gonzalez has called out to social media users to report a TikTok account that has been using her image and video content.

Last year, the popular dancer, who is best known as Chriss Choreo, had fallen prey to an impersonator who used one of her videos to enter a dance competition.

"The person actually submitted the video and won the prize money," she told THE STAR. "But the promoter realised and reached out to me."

The recent incident, however, involves multiple accounts being created with her videos. Gonzalez was alerted by some of her followers as well as her mother who received the videos as forwarded messages on WhatsApp.

"The name, watermarks, labels and logos are blocked out on my videos that were stolen and this is the first and most disheartening experience," she said. "Whoever it is that has created the pages has even stolen photos of me in work scrubs [hospital gear] and is using my photo as a profile picture."

The dancer, who is also a physiotherapist, dance fitness instructor and curator of 876 Tutorial Tuesdays, is currently awaiting the review by TikTok where the channel is still racking up millions of views. Gonzalez has filled out several copyright infringement reports.

Several other artistes have dealt with impersonators or fake accounts profiling as their management in the past including Masicka and Jahvillani. Most recently, Bounty Killer and his manager, Paul 'Bankeylous' Giscombe, warned social media users about fake profiles that have been carrying out transactions using the artiste's name and image.

But content piracy and misuse is a huge challenge not only for creatives like dancers and recording artistes, but also for other industries. Gonzalez said that a possible solution is that persons be required to upload identification documents. Though disheartened, she said the occurrence of scammers, fake page creators and impersonators does not discourage her, "it simply presents another opportunity for growth."

"I have put my artistry before my efforts to protect my works. I am encouraging persons to follow my real pages, @chriss_choreo on Instagram and my new TikTok is @officialchriss_choreo. Those are the only official pages along with my Chriss Choreo YouTube. This year, I'll have to ramp up my efforts with digitally labelling my works and protecting myself from further copyright infringement," she said.