According to Meta, “if you create an original work, you have a copyright from the moment that you create it.” This statement serves as the crux of Meta’s elaborate copyright policy that vows to protect creators and content on its platforms. A recent Bloomberg report reveals that malicious entities on the internet are extorting influencers on Meta platforms using policies that were designed to prevent exactly that. Scammers are issuing copyright takedowns on Facebook and Instagram content that they do not own using Meta’s very own rights management tool that was developed to safeguard influencers.
The Bloomberg report details recent copyright violations against influencers in the Middle East. Content creators shared instances of their content being flagged on Meta platforms under copyright violations. When they contacted the profile that initiated the takedown, they were confronted with an extortion attempt. An Iraqi influencer revealed that a scammer agreed to restore his content across platforms in exchange for $3,000. To make matters worse, the scammer agreed to stop flagging the influencer’s content in exchange for monthly payments amounting to $1,000 or an upfront payment of $7,000 for the entire year.
In the past, content creators suffered the risk of their content being flagged for copyright infringements and then resurfacing under a mysterious handle, which bore the fruits of their labor. Scammers have amplified these rudimentary attempts to extort creators by leveraging Meta’s own rights management tool against honest work. By tactfully flagging the original content on Facebook or Instagram, bad actors create a buffer zone that grants them sufficient time before the work is re-uploaded under their handles and its original creator is penalized for a copyright violation.
Unfortunately, these content crimes are not restricted to Meta platforms. YouTube has seen its own share of copyright exploitation. In 2022, Mashable reported how two scammers were able to amass upward of $23 million from original songs that were not associated with using YouTube’s Content ID system.
Ample content and millions of views serve as fodder for copyright scams. The only difference in the age of influencers is that bad actors can leverage protective policies to make a handsome profit.
