Until recently, Z-Library offered a massive directory of free, pirated ebooks and academic journals. But after years of operating in plain sight, Z-Lib's domains have now been seized by U.S. authorities—and readers on TikTok are blaming fans of romance novelist Colleen Hoover.
Like the Internet Archive, Z-Lib is pretty divisive. A lot of students rely on it to access otherwise-unaffordable textbooks, but it's predictably unpopular among authors, who see ebook piracy as a threat to their livelihood. As Z-Lib began to gain more mainstream attention over the past year, the Authors Guild filed an official complaint to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, taking aim at piracy and citing TikTok as a key culprit in promoting Z-Lib to a wider audience. Meanwhile, Z-Lib was already facing legal pushback overseas.
If you try to visit Z-Lib today, the domains either fail to load or simply lead to a page that reads, "This domain name has been seized by law enforcement."
Right now, BookTok is full of readers bemoaning the demise of Z-Lib, many of them focusing on the sudden inaccessibility of academic materials. "Actually started crying when i saw this i have to pay a fortune for school books now," reads the caption on one TikTok with 3.7 million views:
@billybxtcher actually started crying when i saw this i have to pay a fortune for school books now #greenscreen #colleenhoover #college #university #books ♬ original sound - BloodMan
Interestingly, this TikTok also singles out "a colleen hoover fan" as the reason for Z-Lib's takedown; a common theme in the resulting BookTok backlash. Hoover is massively popular on the platform, and while TikTokers were promoting Z-Lib for all sorts of reasons, Hoover's novels seem to have been a particular target—especially her new book It Starts With Us. TikTokers were openly posting about pirating the book from Z-Lib, and even sharing step-by-step guides on how to use the site.
This unspecified "Colleen Hoover fan" is an easy focal point for Z-Lib users' ire, but like many viral controversies on TikTok, the source of the rumor isn't wholly reliable. A lot of people are pointing the finger at a viral (but now-deleted) TikTok where someone downloads Hoover's books from Z-Lib, posted shortly before Z-Lib's takedown:
@drunkcolaape #duet with @autumnherbs take responsibility for what youve done #zlibary #booktok ♬ Kooda kooda kooda sksksk - user84642586364
"I will happily blame BookTok for the removal of Z-Lib," says one typical response to this Colleen Hoover/Z-Lib TikTok. "Because I've been using this site almost every single week since I was in 9th grade, with no problems. Yet as soon as it becomes popular on TikTok, because people can download their Colleen Hoover books for free, it gets taken down... You gotta gatekeep these things."
But while the "Colleen Hoover fan" narrative is an easy way to interpret the situation, it's not really accurate. This Hoover TikTok seems to have gone viral at the wrong time, coinciding with Z-Lib's domains being seized last week. In reality, the Authors Guild had already submitted its complaint on October 8, following longterm concerns from authors. Plus, Z-Lib had also been banned in India and France earlier this year—both times due to legal challenges from publishers.
The Authors Guild complaint includes multiple references to TikTok, including a statement from a group of romance authors saying that in 2021, "TikTok behaved like jet fuel on the flames. Every month saw a new TikTok video along the lines of: “Never pay for another book! Find them here on Zlibrary." And these videos saw hundreds of thousands of views." Hoover isn't mentioned by name, and she isn't among the letter's signatories.
So the problem is less to do with Colleen Hoover fans specifically, and more to do with TikTok culture at large, with BookTokers posting publicly about pirating free ebooks. If you advertise your crimes under easily-searchable hashtags on a public forum, then eventually you're going to get caught. That's why former Z-Lib users are asking TikTokers not to publicize Z-Lib alternatives... although a quick TikTok search will already bring up some people doing just that.
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