According to the lawsuit, the voice of the actress was used without her consent, and was used to voice obscene language in videos for TikTok
A voice acting actress is suing TikTok for using her voice for a new voice-to-text feature without her consent. According to a lawsuit filed last week, Bev Standing’s voice was used to repeat “foul and abusive language” that would cause “irreparable harm” to her career.
How TikTok managed to use the voice of the actress is unknown (at least, the lawsuit does not say anything about this). According to The Telegraph, according to Standing herself, a few years ago she actually recorded voice for the text-to-speech function for the Institute of Acoustics (IOA). Under a contract with a certain Chinese company, the recording was intended for the translation of texts in Chinese. However, the actress did not authorize the IOA to transfer the recording of her voice to third parties for future use.
What IOA the lawsuit is about is not entirely clear. Google search results show two organizations with the same name, one of them is registered in China, and the other in England. In the lawsuit, the IOA is registered as Edinburgh, Scotland.
In 2020, Standing found her voice to be a viral sensation on the web. The new feature gave developers the ability to use digital voice to voice over text written over their video. However, there is a slight timing discrepancy – the actress claims to have learned about the use of her voice in November, and TikTok announced the new feature in December.
Viral TikTok ads have made Standing’s voice widely recognizable, but that “fame” could negatively impact her career as a voice actress (she is a female voice actor for TV and radio commercials). The woman asks the service to stop using her voice and pay her a fee for the current use. Neither TikTok nor IOA have commented on the claim.
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