UPDATE: Jul. 31, 2024, 9:11 a.m. EDT This piece has been updated with a statement from Meta.
Some social media influencers on Facebook and Instagram are now dealing with a growing new problem on Meta-owned platforms: extortion.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, scammers are now issuing copyright takedowns on Facebook and Instagram content that they do not own — and they’re doing it with Meta’s own rights management tool that is meant to help protect creators’ work.
Malicious actors are seeking to coerce influencers out of thousands of dollars, sometimes demanding recurring payments, to prevent future illegitimate takedowns from occurring.
Extorting influencers with Meta’s own tools
The new report from Bloomberg focuses on social media influencers in the Middle East who are finding that their content is being taken down through Meta’s rights management tool over nonexistent copyright issues. When these content creators reached out to the contact that issued the takedown through Meta’s system, the scammer behind the copyright strike admitted that there was no actual copyright issue — and then attempted to extort them.
This fraudulent practice seems to be growing on social media platforms, so scammers are likely finding success in their fake copyright scheme.
One influencer from Iraq shared that the scammer offered to restore the content that they took down for $3,000. Furthermore, the scammer offered to stop issuing fraudulent takedown requests on his content for a recurring payment of $1,000 per month or an upfront payment of $7,000 per year.
Mashable Light Speed
Scammers have long attempted to weaponize copyright to extort money out of Facebook users. However, most attempts could often be ignored as they typically consisted of a phishing email pretending to be from the company.
However, more resourceful scammers are now gaining access to the Meta rights manager, a tool that requires approval from Meta, through black markets selling access. Using this tool, users aren’t extorted with the threat of a copyright takedown; the takedown occurs, which presumably makes extortion much easier.
“Our Rights Manager Terms strictly prohibit users from uploading other people’s content and claiming it as their own, and we routinely revoke access or disable accounts when we identify cases of misuse,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement provided to Mashable. “Our Rights Manager tools are global, and we invest heavily in them so people around the world can protect their rights and manage their content at scale. We continue to encourage people to report these issues so we can investigate and take action.”
Fraudulent copyright takedowns are becoming a bigger issue across social media
Content creators often have to deal with bad actors ripping their work from online platforms and uploading it as their own. Oftentimes, these individuals monetize this content, essentially stealing money from the original creators.
To help fight this, many platforms over the years have rolled out rights management and copyright tools for big content creators and companies. Essentially, these tools help creators take a proactive approach by establishing ownership over specific pieces of content. From there, these creators can issue takedowns when uploads of their content are detected on social media platforms.
However, scammers have discovered that they can utilize these tools, but uploading stolen content as their own, so the platform then wrongly establishes the thief as the legitimate owner.
And it’s not only happening on Meta-owned platforms. This has unfortunately been a fairly common practice on YouTube through the platform’s own copyright management tool for creators.
One specific incident regarding fake copyright claims on music on YouTube highlights how lucrative this scheme is becoming for these con artists. As Mashable reported in 2022, two scammers were able to steal more than $23 million by simply claiming songs that they had nothing to do with through YouTube’s Content ID system.
With the incentive in place for scammers, this exposure to abuse may worsen until social media platforms get better at weeding these bad actors out of their copyright management tools.
