A University of Tennessee student was shocked to find a TikTok video she shot to celebrate her high school graduation was being used in ads for a “nasty hookup” app that touted her as a possible “friend with benefit,” a new lawsuit claimed.
Kaelyn Lunglhofer claimed British Virgin Islands-based tech company Quantum Communications and its dating app “Meete,” ran suggestive ads using her videos without her permission.
“They’re making me look like a prostitute,” Lunglhofer told local ABC affiliate WKRN.
“It was horrible, I felt so embarrassed,” she added.
Lunglhofer only found out about her video being used in the advertisement after a boy in her dorm saw the video and sent it to her, asking if it was really her, the report said.
“I opened the video and it was like a nasty hook-up app-like advertisement,” Lunglhofer told local affiliate WATE.
The ad, according to court documents, depicts the stolen TikToks as a narrator asks viewers if they’re “looking for a friend with benefits,” adding that this app shows women in the area “who are looking for some fun.”
Her attorney, Abe Pafford, said Meete stole the content and used geo-targeted ads to deceive men at UT and in the Knoxville area — essentially making it appear that the women around them were already on the platform.
“For what this app is selling, to sort of enlist a teenager as an involuntary spokesperson for their product without consent, without permission, and then to target people around her with that ad to try to deceive them, is about as bad as it gets in terms of this type of conduct,” Pafford said.
“They could have as easily taken a similar video from someone 17 or 16 or 15 — and as long as it served their purposes, I think they would use it,” he added.
Lunglhofer is now seeking no less than $750,000 from Meete, which has 17 million worldwide users, according to court documents.
For her, she said, the lawsuit is less about monetary gain and more about accountability and ensuring the law is upheld.
“I don’t want anyone else to have to go through this,” Lunglhofer said.
