Another day, another new threading feature. Meta’s app will “soon” roll out the ability for users to credit the original poster and reshare photos and videos to their timelines without attaching the original post.
Once available, users will need to long-press on a photo or video from their feed and select “Use Media.” You can then create a new post with an image of the clip attached, and the original poster watermark will appear in the top left corner. “This is a quick and easy way to add a creative take on a trending image or clip without posting a quote,” threads director Adam Mosseri wrote in the post.
This feature is likely intended to make it easier to reshare other users’ work with credit to the original author. Mosseri has fielded a number of complaints on the thread from users frustrated at seeing their work stolen without credit. Mosseri said in a post last month that Meta was “looking to move more distribution from aggregators to creators on both Instagram and Threads,” but the original post has since been removed from private. He acknowledged that it could be “very difficult to do so”. Meta-owned platform. On Instagram, the company recently tweaked its algorithm to prioritize creators over aggregators.
But judging by some of the reactions to Threads’ latest update, it appears many creators are still unhappy with Meta’s approach. “It seems like blatant content theft,” one photographer responded. Another user said, “Citing a post is a much more effective way to share someone’s content with your own comment while still crediting the author.”
Meta noted in a separate post that individual creators can disable media reuse in their app settings, so they may be able to block their posts from being shared this way. (There’s also a setting that completely prevents other users from posting quotes.) But for those worried about accounts directly plagiarizing their posts for the purpose of engagement farming, it’s a less conscientious option. There’s still little you can do to prevent your account from copying content. Through screenshots or other means.
