AAP FACTCHECK – TikTok founder Zhang Yiming is a double amputee seen in a viral video, social media users claim.
This is false. The video shows Chinese motivational speaker Chen Zhou, and Mr Yiming is not a bilateral amputee.
The claim appears in a Facebook video posted on September 4, 2024, showing a man without legs using wooden blocks to help him walk with his arms in a crowded lecture hall.
“The Owner of tiktok Duien,” the caption said.
The video’s narrator said: “Here is the founder of TikTok, the very rich Chinese businessman Zhang Yiming, multi-billionaire in dollars”.
Mr Yiming founded tech giant ByteDance, which developed the video platform Douyin, known outside China as TikTok.
However, the video does not show the TikTok founder; it shows Chinese motivational speaker Chen Zhou.
Mr Zhou posted the same video on Douyin on May 22, 2023.
Dubbed ‘the legless warrior’, Mr Zhou lost his legs at age 13 in a train accident and speaks across China, The South China Morning Post reported.
He has been filmed using the same wooden boxes to walk with his hands in a YouTube video posted by TEDx Talks.
China Daily and internet company Sohu have published photos of Mr Zhou, and Chinese TV program The Voice posted a video of him on YouTube.
AAP Fact Check was unable to find any news media reports or photos depicting Mr Yiming as an amputee.
ByteDance posted a YouTube video showing Mr Yiming walking with both legs in 2020.
Mr Yiming was standing on both legs in photos published by The South China Morning Post and Le Monde.
AFP Fact Check debunked a similar claim on a separate video compilation that misidentified Mr Yiming as Mr Zhou.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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