The Delhi HC questioned Meta about why scammers can access its Rights Manager tool to issue fraudulent copyright strikes, reported Bar and Bench. 

During the hearing, Delhi HC Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani raised the following questions:

  • Why is access to the Rights Manager tool restricted?
  • What are Meta’s policy and eligibility criteria for granting access to copyright management tools?
  • Why are applications from petitioners or original creators rejected?

What are the allegations? Mohit Kumar is an AI, business and e-commerce coach who creates content on  Instagram under the handle @risewithmohit. He alleges that scammers downloaded his original videos, registered them as their own using Meta’s Rights Manager tool and issued fraudulent copyright strikes against his accounts.

In its response, Meta stated that Kumar’s content was reinstated, and his accounts were never suspended. The Court directed Meta to restore any content removed due to fraudulent strikes if Kumar proves ownership. Delhi HC listed the matter for September 24. 

This is not the first allegation that Meta’s copyright system has been exploited. MediaNama has been tracking such alleged exploitations. Here are a few such instances: 

  1. Journalist gets a copyright notice from ‘himself’ after making a reel on PM Modi: 

Meta took down journalist Shyam Meera Singh’s reel about PM Modi. The reel discussed PM Modi’s following of accounts on X that Singh alleged had used abusive language against journalists and women. Singh said the copyright notice appeared to have been filed in his own name.

“BJP supporters have filed a fake copyright strike against it… When I checked, the copyright claim was filed under the name “Shyam Meera Singh,” and the email used was a BJP email: [email protected],”  – Journalist Shyam Meera Singh

  1. Content creator receives copyright notice in Japanese from an apparent impersonator

Shobhit Bakliwal’s content was taken down from Instagram because of a fake copyright notice from an impersonated email address. The copyright notice was served in Japanese. View the notice here. 

When MediaNama contacted Bakliwal and saw the video, it had political commentary about businessman Gautam Adani. 

  1. Meta deactivated a woman content creator’s Instagram account after eight copyright strikes through impersonation and Japanese emails.

Another content creator, Sumedha Bhattacharyya’s Instagram account was reportedly “disabled following 8 copyright reports” against the content that she owns. 

“The reports used variations of my YouTube channel name, TheSumedha14, as the alleged rights owner while listing five different Outlook email addresses that I do not recognize or authorize,” Bhattacharyya wrote on X 

She sought human review and said she was willing to verify her identity. She also asked to investigate potential misuse of its copyright system. 

Can social media platforms suspend accounts based on copyright strikes? In a separate case, Delhi High Court Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani is examining if social media platforms can suspend user accounts for copyright violations. Based on the court hearing, Bar and Bench reported on August 11 that Meta admitted in court that 13 copyright strike notices issued against Saurabh Maurya(@iitian_trader_official) were fake and that Meta subsequently restored the affected content. Delhi HC listed this matter too for September 24. 

Meta’s Rights Manager can identify content matches but cannot make legal determinations, reads an FAQ on Meta’s Rights Manager website.

“When Rights Manager’s matching systems make a match between a user upload and a reference file, they’re identifying that two pieces of content appear similar at a technical level. Rights Manager cannot detect copyright infringement; no content management system can. Rights Manager instead helps facilitate the identification of potentially infringing content by surfacing matches.” — Meta 

What are the eligibility criteria for Meta’s copyright management tool? Meta users can apply for access to their copyright management tools here. To access Meta’s Rights Manager tool, users should:

  • Own or control exclusive rights to the content they want to protect.
  • Have multiple pieces of original content to protect.
  • Comply with Meta’s community guidelines. 
  • Have a clean record:
    • No history of posting content without permission.
    • No past content removals due to copyright takedowns.
    • No prior revocation of access to Meta’s protection tools.

Meta users can submit 10 copyright requests every 30 days across all pages they own.

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