Mohammad Saleem’s TikTok Account
Wrote That It Was His Only One

Documented counted 76 videos from one account and 31 from attorney Mohammad Saleem’s official account in its sample of the most-watched immigration-related TikToks.

The account of Mohammad Saleem, whom Documented identifies as an immigration attorney, wrote in a caption in February 2024, “Also, beware of scammers, this is my only TikTok account!” This edition ties that caption to no other account. Documented counted 76 videos from one other account, called here the counted account, and 31 from Saleem’s own in its sample of the most-watched immigration-related TikToks. Documented says his profile ranked among that sample’s top performers.

Documented says it extracted videos from November 2024 to July 2026 and built a sample of roughly 10,000 of the most-watched videos related to immigrant issues in New York City, and worked with the NYU Center for Social Media, AI, and Politics (CSMAP) to access a collection of tens of millions of TikTok video URLs from a representative sample of posts published since October 2024. Documented calls the collection exclusive; a reader cannot re-run Documented’s count from it. Documented says the counted account posted roughly six hundred of Saleem’s videos between September 2025 and May 2026, then moved to other content; as of Oct. 23, 2026, it does not say how many of the 76 were reposts of his videos.

What Documented’s article text leaves out

Documented’s article text, as read on Oct. 23, 2026, does not state the period covered by the 31 videos from Saleem’s official account, the view counts of the 31 or of the 76, how its “top-viewed sample” relates to the roughly 10,000-video sample, or what cutoff or metric defines “most-watched,” “top-viewed” or “top-watched.” Our comparison: the count is of videos, by account, that made a selection Documented calls most-watched; it is not a count of views, reach or recommendations. The window Documented gives for the counted account’s posting of Saleem’s videos falls inside the sample window it gives. A screenshot Documented published, which we viewed, shows the profile page for @w6e65hx6, the counted account, with 20.1K followers and 75.7K likes and a bio that begins “Immigration Lawyer Solve visa/residency issues, avoid mistakes.”

Our comparison: in the screenshot, a handle, a bio that says “Immigration Lawyer” and a follower count are among what a viewer of that page could read. The screenshot shows no name beyond the handle; its 20.1K follower count is undated.

TikTok’s rule, in two versions

TikTok’s Community Guidelines page, “Integrity and Authenticity,” is headed as released Aug. 14, 2025 and effective Sept. 13, 2025 in its archived version, and as released Aug. 25, 2026 and effective Sept. 24, 2026 in the current one as read on Oct. 23, 2026. In both, the page states, of the For You feed (FYF), that “Content is also ineligible for the FYF if it includes unoriginal or reused material without anything new.”

As of Oct. 23, 2026, no source this edition read shows whether any of those 76 videos added anything new, in the rule’s words, or that TikTok assessed them under it. Documented writes, of accounts that copy lawyers’ content, that they often republish the same videos “with different treatments or watermarks”; it does not say that of the 76. The earlier version’s wording is shown in captures through March 6, 2026; TikTok’s archive page lists only that version and the current one. Our comparison: both windows Documented gives end before the current version took effect, and its sample window opens in November 2024, before the earlier version took effect.

The other accounts, as Documented dates them

Documented reports that Saleem says he started reporting an account it names, called here the reported account, to TikTok as early as August 2024. Documented reports that the reported account peaked at over 90,000 followers in May 2025, when Saleem had 160,000, and was still active in April 2026; it says that as of September 2026 the reported account and a second account it names had been banned from TikTok. Documented said on Oct. 21, 2026 that, to date, it had counted 21 accounts that use Saleem’s name, likeness or videos to build a viewership, 16 of them still active.

A screenshot Documented published, which we viewed, shows a third account, @attorneysaleemfirm, under the display name “Attorney Mohammad A. Saleem,” with 100.3K followers and 881.4K likes; the screenshot is undated. Saleem says that account has no affiliation with his practice, Documented reports. Documented says TikTok deactivated that account around Sept. 15, 2026, and calls that a direct response to Documented’s press inquiry. A TikTok spokesperson told Documented, among other things, that TikTok does not allow accounts that mislead or try to manipulate the platform, including through impersonation or spam; that statement, as Documented prints it, names no account and mentions neither the deactivation nor the inquiry. On Oct. 23, 2026, TikTok’s public page for his Feb. 27, 2024 video showed his own account, @attorneysaleem, under the same display name, with about 194,000 followers; Documented gives 160,000 for May 2025. Our comparison: the two accounts showed one display name under different handles, and 100.3K and 194,000 are counts from different dates.

Ethics Opinion 1276, and what two lawyers told Documented

Ethics Opinion 1276 of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Professional Ethics, on the topic “Fake social media accounts offering legal services,” is dated Oct. 23, 2024 on the association’s page, which is itself stamped Oct. 28, 2024. The conclusion states: “A lawyer who knows that some unknown or unidentified person is creating fake social media accounts in order to scam the public has no duty under the Rules of Professional Conduct to take any action to combat the fake accounts.”

The opinion recites, as the facts the inquirer supplied, that the inquirer, an immigration lawyer, reported the fake accounts to the social media platform and asked it to remove them, and that “So far, the platform has not removed or blocked the fake posts or fake accounts.” The opinion refers to its subject as the inquirer; Documented says Saleem submitted a formal inquiry to the association, which it says led the association to publish Opinion 1276. The committee’s own page says its opinions are advisory and are issued only to attorneys about their own proposed conduct, not past conduct or the conduct of another attorney. TikTok’s automatic captions of Saleem’s Feb. 27, 2024 video have him warning viewers not to fall for anyone using “my picture or information” to claim to be an attorney on Telegram or WhatsApp and ask for a consultation fee.

In Documented’s Oct. 21, 2026 article Saleem says, “Right now, at least 60% of my calls are coming from inquiries from TikTok.” Our comparison: that is a share of calls, not of clients or revenue. Ginny Nuñez, a Manhattan immigration attorney, told Documented, “Me as a human, I get annoyed sometimes because it feels like I have to prove myself in every call.” She told Documented that people will even want in-person appointments over virtual ones. Our comparison: Saleem counts the calls that come in; Nuñez counts proof.

What the sources we read do not say

As of Oct. 23, 2026, no source this edition read says how those 76 videos reached viewers, whether through the For You feed, search or follows. Documented writes, in general terms, that TikTok’s algorithm rewards videos that catch people’s attention over videos from trusted sources; it does not say that about these videos. Also, neither Documented’s article nor the TikTok statement it prints, as read on Oct. 23, 2026, reports TikTok acting against the counted account, under its reused-material rule or any other.

Limits of this edition, and one question

On Oct. 23, 2026, this edition read Documented’s Oct. 21, 2026 article and its methods page (text and three published screenshots), TikTok’s page in both versions, Opinion 1276 with its PDF and the committee’s page, and TikTok’s public page for Saleem’s Feb. 27, 2024 video (caption, automatic captions, display name and follower count; the video was not viewed). It did not read the CSMAP collection, any per-video data or any TikTok enforcement record. This page states no account’s current status beyond its dated lines.

Apart from Saleem’s caption and what TikTok’s public page for his video showed, every fact about the accounts Documented describes rests on Documented, including the screenshots it published.

Ours, loosely: we tag this record, not any person or account, to Signal Fragmentation within Digital Derangement Syndrome™ (DDS™), one lawyer’s name, likeness or videos on 21 accounts by Documented’s count, not an answer engine’s. Anyone whose name or videos travel past the accounts they run carries that exposure. The sources we read leave this open for those 76 videos: could a viewer tell the counted account from the lawyer’s own?