Boldface Post Stealing On Facebook

This month Panmedia encountered plagiarism at its worst on Facebook. Some bright social media manager took six of our posts for Eve brands and reposted on a supermarket’s Facebook page. We were flattered, but not amused.
 
We contacted the owner immediately and they agreed to remove Eve’s content from their page.  But the owner, good soul that she is, simply took the word of her social media expert and reported to us later that the posts were removed.
 
When we checked, however, that bright social media manager had replaced our copy but reposted the same images with her text. We called the owner again, and explained that we needed them to remove all the work that was obviously Eve’s.
 
The next day, perhaps scolded by her employer, that same bright social media manager for the supermarket’s page called us to “explain” what had happened.
 
She says she was unaware the content was Panmedia’s work. According to her, one of our posts went viral and she took if from someone else’s page. That made no sense, of course, because she would have had to see its origins, especially since she had substituted her own hashtag. And there was the matter of five others that she had confiscated for her page, starting as far back as April 14.
 
When we examined things closer, we realized that she had repeatedly reposted our work on the supermarket’s page within a 24-hour hour timespan.
 
Sharing posts on Facebook happens all the time, of course. But sensible people aware of the legal ramifications of plagiarism will give attribution generously.
Content creators like Panmedia are often unaware of how others use their work. And if it doesn’t go viral or get a fair amount of distribution we are unlikely to find out.
 
Facebook terms and service indicate that we own all the content and information posted on our page, making it our intellectual property. The platform also allows us to report a person or post for multiple reasons.  Facebook will then take action where they see fit.
 
Beware!