Statement from the Michigan State University Plant Resilience Institute Regarding a Fake TikTok Account

The MSU Plant Resilience Institute (PRI) has been made aware of a fraudulent TikTok account that is impersonating our organization. This account has been reposting our original content—previously shared on X/Twitter—without permission, and pairing these images with trending or inappropriate audio clips. In at least one instance, the misappropriated content included promotional graphics related to a past event involving one of our faculty members, presented in a misleading and disrespectful manner.

We want to make it explicitly clear: this TikTok account is not affiliated with the Plant Resilience Institute or Michigan State University in any way.

Our team, in collaboration with University Communications and Marketing, has taken immediate action to report the account for impersonation, copyright infringement, and the spread of false or misleading information. Despite numerous reports and support requests, the account remains active at this time. We are continuing to work through official TikTok channels to have the impersonating account removed as swiftly as possible.

Official MSU PRI content is shared through our authenticated institutional platforms, and we encourage our community to remain vigilant and report suspicious content or accounts that claim affiliation with PRI.

For questions or to confirm official content, please contact PRI at pri.admin@msu.edu, University Spokesperson Amber McCann at mccanna3@msu.edu, or visit plantresilience.msu.edu.

Thank you for your continued support and commitment to scientific integrity.

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MSU Plant Resilience Institute