Unoriginal content has become one of the major problems of today’s social media experience. According to reports, mainstream media is subject to growing distrust, intensified by the spread of AI-generated content. This type of content is especially prevalent on Facebook and Instagram, the first and fourth most used social platforms globally.

However, social media giant Meta has begun its crackdown on content of this sort, starting with Facebook, likely before doubling down on its other platforms: Instagram and Threads. “To improve your Feed, we’re introducing stronger measures to reduce unoriginal content on Facebook and ultimately protect and elevate creators sharing original content,’’ Meta’s blog post read.

Meta considers unoriginal content to be the repeated reuse or repurposing of a creator’s work in a way that undermines their effort and creativity. They maintain that the honest act of creators resharing others’ work is commendable, but not stealing disguised as resharing. “We love it when creators reshare content, add commentary in a reaction video, or join in on a trend, adding their unique take. What we want to combat is the repeated reposting of content from other creators without permission or meaningful enhancements.”

“Too often, the same meme or video pops up repeatedly, sometimes from accounts pretending to be the creator and other times from different spammy accounts. It dulls the experience for all and makes it harder for fresh voices to break through,” the blog post added.

The implication is that complicit accounts will be demonetised “for a period of time” while also receiving “reduced distribution on everything they share.”

These measures from Meta follow a similar move from YouTube, which only a few days ago rolled out its policy around unoriginal content, including mass-produced and repetitive videos. YouTube has long been against this sort of content and has consistently made them ineligible for its monetisation options, as viewers often consider them spam.