When a trend takes off, who gets the credit?

Aura farming, the trend in which people film themselves looking calm and effortlessly confident, has travelled far beyond the account where it began. It was started by Taha, an entertainer who posts as tahalivestreams.

Many of the people now making such videos may never have seen one of his. That is usual for trends on short-video platforms, where a format spreads by imitation rather than by link.

The platforms do offer ways to credit an original. On TikTok, a video that reuses another clip’s sound links back to it, and the Duet and Stitch features name the creator whose video is being answered. A format copied from scratch carries no such link.

Credit then rests with viewers, who often name the originator in the comments, and with the creator’s own following, which keeps the connection in view.

For creators, the result can be a trend that is better known than the person who began it. Taha continues to post under his own name on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch.