The goal is to go after authors who steal other users’ content as part of a broader effort to fix Facebook’s feed. In its latest update, the company outlined new steps it is taking to punish accounts that steal other people’s work.
In a blog post for creators, Meta says that accounts that “repeatedly” and “inappropriately” reuse text posts, photos, or videos from other accounts will be demonetized “for a period of time.” Meta will also block all their posts, not just those containing offensive content. The company notes that these changes are aimed at “repeatedly reposting content from other authors without permission or meaningful improvements,” and not at content such as reaction videos.
Meta has previously taken similar steps to reward original content on Instagram, where the company actively replaced reposted videos with the original clip. Now the company says it is considering a similar move on Facebook, adding a link to the original video when it detects a duplicate.
The latest punishment comes at a time when Meta has said it is trying to reduce the amount of spam and other unwanted posts on Facebook’s feed. Earlier this year, the company said it would demonetize authors who share posts with spammy captions and would prosecute authors who manipulate interactions on the platform. In its latest update, Meta said that since the beginning of the year, it has punished more than 500,000 accounts that used such tactics, “taking measures ranging from lowering the ranking of their comments and reducing the distribution of their content to preventing these accounts from monetizing.” The company has also removed more than 10 million profiles that it says were impersonating “major content producers.”
In addition, Meta is launching new in-app insights that it says can help realtors understand issues affecting their reach or monetization status. The new dashboard will highlight potential issues, such as unoriginal content or spammy signatures, as well as problems affecting monetization.
