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YouTube Shorts Rolls Out Ability to Sample Other Videos, Like TikTok

Google's massive video site has been using Shorts to chase the popularity of TikTok.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials
  • Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)
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Joan E. Solsman
YouTube
James Martin/CNET

YouTube is updating a feature of Shorts, the video giant's competitor to TikTok, that lets creators "remix" segments from other Shorts or YouTube video into their own posts. After introducing the ability for Shorts to sample audio from other videos, YouTube is starting to roll out the ability to sample a short video segment of any eligible YouTube video. 

Videos that are ineligible are any for which the original creator has opted out of the feature, as well as any that are out of bounds because of privacy settings or copyright ownership.

YouTube is the world's biggest online video source, with more than 2 billion monthly users. With Shorts, Google's massive video site is trying to tap into the sensation around TikTok, the social video app owned by Chinese company Bytedance. 

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