This article was published in partnership with Lupa.
Brazilian TikTok is home to a burgeoning community of hustlers that teach their followers how to use VPNs, digital phones, and obtain tax IDs to fraudulently earn higher payouts from the platform’s Creator Rewards Program.
The creators pitch themselves as experts in “TikTok Dark,” a term used in Brazil to refer to faceless accounts that monetize through the app’s rewards program or the TikTok Shop. The accounts are typically low-quality and lean heavily on the use of AI.
Self-styled TikTok Dark gurus encourage Brazilian users to circumvent TikTok’s terms of service and target high-value markets like Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States rather than their home country.
These schemes gain traction because revenue can vary vastly depending on location. Accounts in the US are particularly coveted and can be bought at a premium on WhatsApp groups that also sell the identification and tax documents necessary to cash out the earnings from video views.
This discrepancy in revenue potential has introduced additional incentives to pump AI slop and misinformation into American For You feeds.
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