SG’s social media influencer Sugaresque plagiarism scandal goes international; story carried by US, UK, HK media

SINGAPORE: The plagiarism scandal surrounding Brooke Lim Ke Xin, a local influencer and tuition agency owner, has gone international, with media outlets such as Insider and The Daily Mail carrying stories about her.

Lim published a longform essay on Apr 18 about her eating disorder that was discovered to be riddled with uncredited material from multiple sources. Following this discovery, a petition was launched online for her acceptance into the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) to be revoked.

The 19-year-old founded the popular tuition agency called Classicle Club and is a prospective freshman at UCLA College of Letters and Science with a major in Pre Business Economics.

And while Lim apologised over TikTok, those who have exposed her plagiarism pointed out that she also plagiarised interview responses and tellonym replies in the past.

@sugaresqueessay

honestly so disappointed (MORE EVIDENCE COMING once we figure out how to c3ns0r properly because the videos we upload keep getting taken down for some reason) #sugaresque #plagiarism #fyp #fypシ #fypsg #sgtiktok #sg #singapore #bombasticsideeye #criminaloffensivesideeye #accountability #controversy #blowthisup #exposed #takeresponsibility

♬ 꽃 – JISOO

American online media company Insider broke the news of the scandal surrounding Lim on Tuesday (Apr 25). The piece was also published in Yahoo! News and Business Insider Africa on the same day and South China Morning Post on Apr 26.

“Lim — lithe, beautiful, eloquent, and social media-savvy — made more than six figures in 2022 from the agency alone, reported The Straits Times, Singapore’s national paper.

But on Wednesday, April 19, Lim was accused by a Tiktok account with the ID @sugaresqueessay of extensively plagiarizing an essay titled “On Being Afraid Of Eating,” initially published on her blog, Grayscale Copy, on April 18. Lim’s blog is now password-protected,” the Insider piece reads.

@sugaresqueessay

‼️ PAUSE TO READ ‼️ i cant believe she plagiarised so much from ONE book alone and THERES ACTUALLY EVEN MORE from another book too (haven’t had the time to compile) #sugaresque #plagiarism #fyp #fypシ #fypsg #sgtiktok #sg #singapore #bombasticsideeye #criminaloffensivesideeye #accountability #controversy #blowthisup #exposed #takeresponsibility

♬ LMAO THE VIDS – ✨ ILikePotatosOnCheese ✨

Lim told Insider that she is aware of the petition to revoke her acceptance to UCLA but clarified that “as of time of writing, I have not committed to UCLA, and am not a UCLA student. I trust that the school will do its due diligence and I would be open to clarifying my stance directly should the need arise.”

Meanwhile, The Daily Mail quoted from an open letter to Lim that can be found on the Google Doc detailing the plagiarism the influencer committed.

“I understand you may have struggled with an eating disorder… but taking experiences from a fictional BOOK and making them seem like your own experiences/words without disclosing to your unassuming readers and STUDENTS that this is NOT completely your material is so insane to me and I cannot believe I used to admire your work ethic.

I empathise with your struggle and I truly do hope you can recover one day, but this very misleading essay is a whole other issue from your disorder and it would suffice to say that I was extremely distressed and confused about why you saw the need to copy MULTIPLE parts of the SAME book and not credit it as source material as you had done with the other quotes and references scattered throughout the rest of your essay.” /TISG

Petition launched asking UCLA to revoke the acceptance of SG influencer Sugaresque after she was caught for plagiarism