Uploaders modify clips in an effort to get around the restrictions. The modifications include cropping or adding a filter. Some change the film speed, which makes the characters sound like they belong in “Alvin and the Chipmunks.”
Still, people are using the app to watch chopped-up movies and shows they might have otherwise ignored. Elizabeth Kidd, 31, said she got hooked on “Call the Midwife,” a BBC drama, thanks to TikTok.
The TikTok-ified version cuts out the parts of the show that might test the patience of some viewers — and Ms. Kidd was fine with that. “When you’re just getting the one character that you’re following, instead of having to do the whole arc of every episode, it just scratches my brain,” she said.
Alex Kim, a 25-year-old TikTok creator and pediatric nurse, said he had found himself watching movies without learning their titles. He described a film starring Ryan Gosling and Steve Carell that he believed to be “Love, Actually.” (Reader, it was “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”)
Also circulating on TikTok? Clips of the period romance “Brooklyn,” the reality show “Sister Wives” and the Pixar movie “Up.” Videos under the hashtag #movieclips have nearly 200 billion views on the app.