Fact-check: Is the founder and CEO of TikTok physically challenged?

Fact-check: Is the founder and CEO of TikTok physically challenged?

Claims: A viral video circulating on TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube claims that a man seen in a wheelchair addressing a large crowd is the founder and chairman of TikTok.  

Full Text: The video shows a man using a wheelchair and a mobility device to navigate the stage. The device resembles wooden blocks. It’s most likely a mobility aid designed to help people with disabilities navigate uneven surfaces.

The video has this accompanying text: “Do you know that the FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN OF TIK TOK is disabled? He is the one here you’re seeing. Nothing more to say. What’s your excuse??”

TikTok was created by ByteDance, a Chinese company founded in 2012. ByteDance launched TikTok in September 2016, and the app quickly gained popularity. In October 2018, TikTok became the most downloaded app in the United States. As of 2022, the app has been downloaded over 3 billion times and has more than 1 billion monthly active users. The app has continued to grow in popularity, with users from all over the world creating and sharing short-form videos on a variety of topics.

Verification: PRNigeria investigation began with a close analysis of the video’s keyframes. This led us to a page by the China Daily about a disabled man named Chen Zhou. The article included photos of Zhou doing pushups and climbing a mountain, carrying a similar mobility device to the one in the viral video.

Further investigation shows that the video was made popular by a TikTok username @trendtrackus who has 26.2K followers, 176.7K likes and while the handle follows only 3 people on the platform.

The one minute 23 seconds video which has 142.8 likes, 5.0K comments and 16.7K shares.

Additional inquest revealed that the trender of the video has other videos of the same man under reference as seen here, here and here.

PRNigeria fact-check team found numerous media reports about Chen Zhou, a Chinese motivational speaker who uses a custom-made mobility device that consists of two wooden boxes; like his Ted Talk. 

Zhou was born to a poor family in a village in Shandong province, China. When he was 13 years old, he sneaked onto a train carriage with the hope of reaching a big city, but he jumped off when he realized the train was going in the wrong direction. While attempting to flee, he was hit by another train and lost both of his legs. 

Further probing revealed that the founder and CEO of TikTok, Zhang Yiming, is not physically challenged. The person you might have seen in some viral videos is Chen Zhou, a Chinese motivational speaker who lost both his legs in an accident at the age of 13. He is not related to TikTok or its parent company ByteDance. 

The founder of ByteDance is Zhang Yiming, who stepped down as the chairman in 2021 and was replaced by Liang Rubo. The current CEO of TikTok is Shou Zi Chew, a Singaporean businessman who joined ByteDance as its chief financial officer in 2021.

Conclusion: Findings by PRNigeria reveals that the person in the viral video claimed to be the founder of Tik Tok is actually Chen Zhou, a Chinese motivational speaker with a disability who uses a mobility device made of two wooden boxes. 

PRNigeria therefore concludes that the claim that the person in the video who is physically challenged and claimed to be Tik Tok founder is False.  

By PRNigeria