DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, this isn’t legal advice and this is only for educational purposes. The ideas in this post aren’t legal advice and do not replace you seeking advice from a lawyer.
Instagram is a social photo-sharing app. It’s common that other Instagram accounts will post photos or videos that don’t belong to them.
Although the platform is about social photo sharing, it doesn’t mean that an account has the permission to share content that isn’t their own.
Many large Instagram accounts only share content from others. This used to result in exposure and follows, likes and comments for the owner of the content. While this does still happen, the exposure isn’t as good as it used to be.
Thanks algorithm changes and reduced engagement…
File a DMCA Takedown Request
If you want to take down a photo/video in which you own the copyright, you’ll file a DMCA takedown request. It stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Watch how to report copyright infringements on Instagram with step-by-step instructions.
As I am not a lawyer, I can’t advise on intellectual property and when you should vs shouldn’t file a request. However, if you want to leave a comment, I can tell you what I have down in the past based on my own research.
Batch File DMCA Requests With a Copyright Collection.
I have created a ‘Copyright’ collection on Instagram, using their saved collection feature. I save all images use without permission to this collection, then go through and report the content when I have time.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, this isn’t legal advice and this is only for educational purposes. The ideas in this post aren’t legal advice and do not replace you seeking advice from a lawyer.
Hey Rachel, thank you for sharing this. I am curious to know if you d write to the account that used the photo first and ask them to remove it or you would report it to instagram straight away.
Hey Katia, glad you enjoyed it! These days, I don’t. I just report it. That being said, I wouldn’t report an image if a brand I wanted to work with shared it or if there was an opportunity to talk to the brand directly. It’s totally a personal preference. I just try to protect my energy as much as possible. You could create a ‘quick response’ in IG if you have a business account to save you time. At the end of the day always be nice, but protect your time and energy too. Hope that helps:)
How are you discovering your stolen content on IG? Just by chance or from others telling you they saw one of your images? Do you know if there is a way to do a reverse image search to find if your content is being used by others? Thank you!
There are a couple of ways that I find them. People tell me they saw an image being used without permission (sometimes it’s an account that is using a lot of images from people in the community. They recognise the shot and reach out to me). Sometimes the images are reposted using a repost app and I get tagged in it. I especially don’t like it when they repost my caption and it shares my personal thoughts or stories. Other times the account might tag me in the image but not make credit in the caption. Other times the credit is so buried that it’s not correct or reasonable credit. Sometimes it some up in discover. There are some paid services that you can do image searches for where your images are. However, I don’t know if they scan the app? Personally I don’t spend time looking too deeply otherwise I’d never get anything done!
I’ve had hundreds of my images reused on IG, most of them stolen by bot accounts trying to get followers to sell. Some just use my image, some use both image and caption. Hashtags are what these bot accounts use to find images and I find that these “thefts” always increase during the holiday season. Unfortunately IG doesn’t allow me to report accounts that have 98% of their posts consisting of my images. I have to go to each post and report them individually. Very annoying and time consuming on the computer!
Yes Sue, those accounts are a problem! IG needs a system like Pinterest. Where after a certain number of strikes your account is disabled. It’s very frustrating that happens. So sorry to hear that.