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A scandal over allegations of plagiarism is rocking the book community on TikTok, becoming the latest drama to unfold in a pocket of the internet that was once considered a safer space from online toxicity.

“Beverly,” a romance novel by indie author Laura J. Robert, had picked up recent buzz on the social media platform, where readers and authors often discuss the latest titles and give recommendations.

But several creators removed their videos praising Robert’s book after allegations emerged that it was a rip-off of the indie author R.J. Lewis’ “Obsessed,” which was published in 2016. Both books have plots that follow a lead female character and her romance with her childhood friend.

Some people posted excerpts of Lewis’ words juxtaposed with Robert’s, identifying what they described as similarities. Others accused Robert of using artificial intelligence to tweak and lengthen Lewis’ book to create her own version. A handful of people speculated the authors could be the same person — because Robert’s initials are Lewis’ initials backward — and that the controversy could all be a PR stunt.

NBC News was unable to reach Robert on Friday. Lewis declined to comment further.

On BookTok, some have cited the somewhat niche controversy as yet another example of the community’s shift away from lighthearted content around new releases.

“Does anyone miss just having a silly, goofy, fun time, having a bit of a laugh?” Lola Oluremi, a BookTok creator, said in a recent video discussing “Beverly” and “Obsessed.” “I feel like every time I log onto BookTok now, it’s something.”

The online space, which has been credited for inspiring a fresh wave of interest in literature, hasn’t been devoid of drama in the past. But this month, the “Beverly” accusations followed two other separate situations that had caused some division among BookTokers online.

Author Ali Hazelwood, who is behind popular novels such as “The Love Hypothesis,” left Instagram purportedly after she was “bullied” for a comment she made during a panel discussion at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in April.

Hazelwood weighed in on who she thought Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist of Suzanne Collins’ “Hunger Games” books, should have ended up with romantically, saying it should have been her childhood friend Gale, rather than her fellow tribute, Peeta.

“He’s a terrible, mean, selfish person,” Hazelwood said of the character Peeta, a baker’s son from District 12 who was reaped alongside Katniss in the books. The clip of Hazelwood’s remarks was widely circulated and blasted online by people who accused her of having a bad take.

Hazelwood didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Since she went dark online, several BookTokers have come to her defense, reflecting on how the community has seemingly become more prone to getting lost in meaningless discourse.

“The way y’all have lost the plot over a fictional bread boy has left me genuinely questioning the mental health of the book community,” Shelley Fleuridor, the YouTuber behind the channel “Book Chats with Shelley,” said in a recent video delving into the Hazelwood backlash. “We need to talk about what’s happening to this community and why some of you genuinely need to be placed in a reading timeout immediately, maybe permanently.”

Also this past month, Victoria Aveyard, the author of the “Red Queen” books, sparked a wave of backlash and speculation on BookTok after she post a video alluding to another author’s using generative AI in a novel without naming the purported writer. She said she didn’t name the person because she didn’t want to get sued.

“Using GenAI to come up with characters, plots and story ideas isn’t writing. It’s theft,” Aveyard said. “Using GenAI doesn’t make you a writer. It makes you a thief.” She said generative AI has been trained on copyrighted material that “has been stolen from artists without license or compensation.”

Some subsequent posts from users accuse Aveyard of being a “mean girl” obsessed with “drama.” In other videos, some try to guess which author she was referring to. Meanwhile, a handful of authors have also been posting videos of their writing and editing processes to prove their work isn’t made with AI.

With “Beverly,” it remains unclear whether there will be consequences for Robert beyond online fallout.

Robert’s social media pages and her author website were no longer online Friday. “Beverly” has also been removed from Amazon. The title remains on GoodReads, where several people have posted comments about the plagiarism accusations and given the book a one-star review.

A spokesperson for Amazon, which owns GoodReads, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lewis posted about the plagiarism allegations on Instagram this week, calling the situation an indie author’s “worst nightmare.”

“I’m an author who does not have a big online presence and thank all who have reached out to bring this to my attention as I don’t have much visibility on the social media space,” she wrote.

She said she has contacted Amazon to raise a copyright infringement case and hopes “that people in the booktok space realize this author is stealing content and profiting from it.”

MOCKSVILLE, N.C. — The pilot of a small plane that crashed near a North Carolina airport this month had raised a wheel after landing to avoid hitting a turtle on the runway, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report.

The pilot of the Universal Stinson 108 and a passenger were killed in the June 3 crash near Sugar Valley Airport in Mocksville, officials said. A second passenger was seriously injured in the crash.

A communications operator looking out the airport office window advised the pilot that there was a turtle on the runway, according to the report released this week. The operator reported that the pilot landed about 1,400 feet down the 2,424-foot runway, then lifted the right main wheel to avoid the turtle. The operator heard the pilot advance the throttle after raising the wheel, but the airplane left her view after that.

A man cutting the grass at the end of the runway reported seeing the pilot raise the right wheel to avoid the turtle, then the wings rocked back and forth and the plane took off again, according to the report. The man lost sight of the plane and then he heard a crash and saw smoke.

The plane crashed in a heavily forested area about 255 feet from the runway and caught fire, officials said. The plane was wedged between several trees and remained in one piece except for a few pieces of fabric found in a nearby stream. It came to rest on its left side with the left wing folded underneath the fuselage and the right wing bent toward the tail.

Preliminary reports contain facts collected on scene, but don’t speculate on probable causes, according to the NTSB’s website. Those are included in final reports, which can take one to two years to complete.

A Colorado man suspected of killing his wife was charged Friday for the second time with first degree murder in her 2020 death, the Twelfth Judicial District Attorney’s Office said in a release.

Barry Morphew was previously charged with first degree murder, among other charges, in May 2021 in the killing of his wife, Suzanne Morphew, who was last seen on Mother’s Day in 2020. But those charges were dropped without prejudice — meaning charges could be filed again at a later date — in April 2022 as prosecutors were closing in on finding the woman’s remains.

Officials took Morphew into custody Friday in Arizona, the District Attorney’s office said, but the office is working to extradite the man back to the San Luis Valley in Colorado.

It was not immediately clear whether Morphew is being held in jail or he has obtained legal representation.

Iris Eytan, the attorney who represented Morphew in the earlier charges, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not immediately clear if she is still representing him.

Suzanne Morphew was last seen on May 10, 2020, near County Road 225 and West Highway 50 in Maysville, about 100 miles west of Colorado Springs. She was on a bike ride at the time.

A 49-year-old mother of two, Suzanne Morphew was reported missing from her Chaffee County home that same day. Also that day, her mountain bike and helmet were discovered on the side of a county road in Salida, Colorado, near the family’s home.

Her husband had repeatedly denied his involvement in her death and pleaded not guilty to the initial charges.

One week before Morphew was set to stand trial on the initial charge of first degree murder in his wife’s disappearance, prosecutors dismissed the charges because they said they had zeroed in on an area where they believed her remains to be, but weather in the region was prohibiting officials from recovery efforts, slowing down the case.

Suzanne Morphew’s remains were finally uncovered in September 2023, officials said at the time. They were found during an unrelated search near Moffat in Saguache County.

An April 2024 autopsy determined she died by homicide, which reported that drugs normally used as animal tranquilizers were found in her system.

Suzanne Morphew “died as a result of homicide by unspecified means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication,” the El Paso County coroner’s report, obtained by NBC News at the time, said.

“The drugs are marketed as a compound injectable chemical immobilizer for wildlife providing pharmacologically reversible analgesia, sedation, and immobilization,” according to the report.

Prosecutors had said they believed Morphew used a tranquilizer gun in his wife’s murder. They had also said he was the only one with motive to kill Suzanne Morphew, because she was having an affair, believed her husband was having one, too, and had plans to file for divorce.

Days before her disappearance, Suzanne Morphew texted her husband that their relationship was “done,” according to the initial arrest affidavit from 2021.

“Let’s handle this civilly,” she said, according to the affidavit.

“It had become clear that Barry could not control Suzanne’s insistence on leaving him, and he resorted to something he has done his entire life — hunt and control Suzanne like he had hunted and controlled animals,” the affidavit said.

Morphew also filed a $15 million lawsuit against authorities who accused him of killing his wife in May 2023. At the time, the couple’s daughters spoke in support of their father.

The District Attorney’s office in the Friday release said the investigation into Suzanne Morphew’s death has been ongoing.

“Federal, State and local law enforcement have never stopped working toward justice for Suzanne,” said Twelfth Judicial District Attorney Anne Kelly.

Walmart has agreed to pay $10 million to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission civil lawsuit accusing the world’s largest retailer of ignoring warning signs that fraudsters used its money transfer services to fleece consumers out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The settlement was filed on Friday in Chicago federal court, and requires approval by U.S. District Judge Manish Shah.

Walmart also agreed not to process money transfers it suspects are fraudulent, or help sellers and telemarketers it believes are using its services to commit fraud.

“Electronic money transfers are one of the most common ways that scammers tell consumers to send them money, because once it’s sent, it’s gone for good,” said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC consumer protection bureau. “Companies that provide these services must train their employees to comply with the law and work to protect consumers.”

The Arkansas-based retailer did not admit or deny wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. Walmart did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In its June 2022 complaint, the FTC accused Walmart of turning a blind eye to fraudsters who used its money transfer services to cash out at its stores.

Walmart acts as an agent for money transfers by companies such as MoneyGram and Western Union. Money can be hard to trace once delivered.

The FTC said fraudsters used many schemes that included impersonating Internal Revenue Service agents, impersonating family members who needed money from grandparents to avoid jail, and telling victims they won lotteries or sweepstakes but owed fees to collect their winnings.

Shah dismissed part of the FTC case last July but let the regulator pursue the remainder. Walmart appealed from that decision. Friday’s settlement would end the appeal.

The S&P 500 fell on Friday as investors monitored the latest developments out of the Middle East. Traders also contemplated the path of future interest rate cuts by Federal Reserve.

The broad market index declined 0.22% to end at 5,967.84, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.51% and settled at 19,447.41. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up 35.16 points, or 0.08%, closing at 42,206.82.

Chip stocks came under pressure following a report by The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. may revoke waivers for some semiconductor manufacturers. Nvidia was down more than 1%, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing slid nearly 2%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) was lower by nearly 1%.

The S&P 500 started off the trading session higher after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said that the central bank could cut rates as early as July. “I think we’re in the position that we could do this and as early as July,” Waller said during a “Squawk Box” interview.

“That would be my view, whether the committee would go along with it or not,” he added.

This comes after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday the central bank was in no hurry to cut benchmark rates and will remain data dependent, especially as it remains unclear how President Donald Trump’s tariffs will impact the economy. The S&P 500 closed slightly lower that day following those remarks.

Trump ripped into Powell again Thursday, saying the Fed Chair is costing the U.S. “hundreds of billions of dollars” by delaying rate cuts. The president said ahead of the Fed’s decision Wednesday that “stupid” Powell “probably won’t cut” rates.

Tensions around the Israel-Iran conflict also remained high, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly ordering Jerusalem’s military to strike “strategic targets” in Iran, as well as “government targets.”

Trump is weighing direct U.S. involvement with a strike on Tehran, with the White House on Thursday saying that he will make a final decision within the next two weeks. Trump previously called for Tehran’s complete surrender, to which Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, labeled the notion “threatening and ridiculous.”

“With so much uncertainty going on in this world, who really wants to go long over the weekend,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. He also pointed out that the S&P 500 is still trading at just around 3% below its recent 52-week high, saying that “prior highs act like rusty doors and require several attempts before finally swinging open.”

“If there’s a calming down of the geopolitical activities, then you know that could be helpful,” he continued.

For the week, the S&P 500 was about 0.2% lower. The 30-stock Dow eked out a 0.02% gain on the week, while the Nasdaq advanced 0.2%.

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