Week 2 - 6.24.2024
Let's jump right into this...
Memes, Facebook and a Different Kind of Content Theft [Plagarism Today]
https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2024/08/19/memes-facebook-and-a-different-kind-of-content-theft/
So glad I don't use Facebook anymore LOL. This story, despite coming from a site called "Plagiarism Today", is not so much about plagiarism, and is more about how limited user's rights have become on large social media networks. Essentially, there was a Facebook group for a popular TV show consisting of 100k people that was brought out by some random user and completely changed the focus to something irrelevant.
To quote the article: "The truth is that any time you post your work on someone else’s website, you’re trusting them with it. That trust can always be betrayed. Facebook itself could close someday. YouTube could change its content guidelines and take down previously acceptable work. Tumblr did something similar in 2018. If it is not your site (and you have backups), your work is only there for as long as someone else thinks it is expedient. You are subject to the whims of whatever site you are on. Whether it’s Photobucket, Tumblr or a What We Do in the Shadows meme group, building your castle in someone else’s kingdom is risky. All it takes is one person to pull the rug out from underneath you and your entire community."
This is common on pretty much any social media site that lets people congregate in niche groups.
Don't get me wrong though, social media is a valid marketing tool, but it's also important to store your work in more secure places on the web in order to take real ownership over your work. Given how big of a problem plagiarism is in this day and age, I would recommend checking https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/ regularly to know where to spot it, and what to look out for. Especially if you're a content creator.
