Social media influencers across the Middle East are increasingly falling victim to a rising wave of fake copyright violation scams, where threat actors exploit Meta Platforms Inc.’s rights management tools to extort money from legitimate content creators by falsely flagging their posts for copyright violations.
Meta’s rights management tools, such as Rights Manager and YouTube’s ContentID, were designed to help content owners protect their intellectual property.
The victims of these schemes are diverse, including hospitals, social activists, fashion models, and business owners, reports Bloomberg.
The attack begins with the scammers flagging the social media posts of someone with hundreds of thousands of followers, causing the platform to take action.
After flagging the video, scammers contact the creator via WhatsApp and demand an amount to remove the copyright violation request. Furthermore, they also offer monthly and yearly ransomware subscriptions to protect the accounts from future fake copyright claims. The offer comes with an implicit threat, and influencers often provide ransom to scammers.
Moreover, a black market has emerged, selling Instagram and Facebook accounts with Rights Manager access for up to $3,000. After securing legitimate access, these accounts are often hacked. Once given Rights Manager access, scammers can initiate takedown requests against genuine content creators and demand payments to resolve the issue.
Although Meta’s Trusted Partner Network, consisting of local experts, has been instrumental in addressing these schemes and restoring accounts, the process can take weeks, and victims cannot afford the delay.
Awas al-Saadi, founder of Tech4Peace, an Iraqi nonprofit within the network, estimates that extortionists have made as much as $1 million from these scams. He criticises Meta for not taking sufficient steps to prevent the problem, suggesting that banning IP addresses associated with abusive accounts could be a preventive measure.
Despite raising the issue at a conference in October, Al-Saadi claims that Meta has shown little interest in addressing the problem, asking him to stop prioritising the reporting of copyright trolls.
Meta should protect legitimate creators and ensure that their tools, designed to protect the creators, are not used against them.
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