Erika Marzano (above) audience development manager at Deutsche Welle

CapCut - the Chinese, ByteDance-owned video editing app behind countless viral TikToks and Instagram Reels - has become a newsroom staple for fast, mobile-first storytelling.

However, its newly updated terms of service, rolled out quietly on 12 June 2025, should prompt urgent scrutiny from any journalist or editor relying on the platform to produce vertical video.

Under these new terms, users grant CapCut and its partners a global, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license to use any content uploaded to the app. That includes the right to reproduce, distribute, modify, and sublicense the material, without notifying the user or offering compensation. Even more concerning, CapCut considers all uploaded content to be non-confidential.

This has serious implications for journalists. It means editorial footage, branded content, exclusive interviews, or even sensitive raw material could be repurposed, recontextualised, or monetised by a third party without the journalist’s knowledge or consent. Even more concerning, the terms allow CapCut and its partners to use a journalist’s username, face, or voice to publicly identify them as the source of a video, including in sponsored content or advertising. For journalists working in sensitive environments or reporting under their real names, this creates significant risks around visibility and misuse.

For many newsrooms, CapCut is not just a nice-to-have. It has become an essential part of mobile workflows, particularly for TikTok, Reels, and Shorts content. Its user-friendly interface, free pricing option, and integration with trends make it ideal for producing videos on tight deadlines or in low-resource environments. But using the app may now come at a high editorial cost.

Uploading a file to CapCut means relinquishing control, not just over who sees the content, but over who owns the rights. The platform’s terms effectively nullify any exclusivity or confidentiality around journalistic material. This is particularly risky in the case of embargoed stories, sensitive visuals, or location-tagged content........

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