Onezwa Mbola and Nara Smith, two prominent TikTok food influencers, are on the brink of a potentially serious legal battle.
The debate over whose content is original and whether Nara Smith is allegedly stealing Mbola’s content has been in the spotlight over the last week.
The drama began when Onezwa Mbola, a South African chef known for her from-scratch cooking videos, accused Smith of copying her content, including recipe ideas, video style, and even voice-over techniques.
Mbola took to her TikTok account to address the issue with millions of followers. In a series of posts, she accused Nara Smith of copying her content without permission, sparking an online uproar among their respective fanbases.
This comes after Smith posted a video of herself making Boba tea from scratch, just a day after Mbola did the same.
Mbola’s followers also noted the similarities between their content for a while now.
“For months now, I have watched a very popular content creator use my ideas…They have continuously used my ideas to get views.
“That would be fine, except in South Africa, we don’t get paid for views, and where she is, they get paid for views. So, she has been making money off stealing my content,” Mbola said in the accusatory video.
Nara Smith, also born in South Africa, has 7.7 million followers and more than 300 million likes on TikTok. She responded by issuing a formal demand letter to Onezwa.
Smith wrote to Mbola, demanding a public retraction of “entirely false” allegations. She claimed that the allegations were false and damaging to her reputation.
In the letter, Smith addressed the allegations directly.
Onezwa Mbola took the letter she received from Smith to X (formerly Twitter) to share.
“I am writing to address a serious matter regarding your recent statements accusing me of stealing your content. You have publicly claimed that I stole your videos related to Boba tea and mozzarella cheese, which is untrue and damaging to my reputation,” Smith wrote.
She continued, “These allegations are entirely false. The videos in question are not my original creations. I have all the necessary proof of this on the social media platform TikTok. Your false accusations have caused significant harm to my personal and professional reputation.”
“This email serves as a formal notice that if you don’t retract your statements and cease making defamatory claims immediately, I will have no choice but to pursue legal action against you for defamation of character. I strongly urge you to take this matter seriously and promptly address it to avoid further legal consequences.”
Mbola has yet to update her followers about her response to Smith’s lawsuit threat.
