There have been so many cases of defacement of individuals, across the social media landscape- and also across the internet. However, 90% of it, happens through Facebook.
In the year of 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, founded Facebook with the sole purpose of populating it across university students- providing them with the ways and means to connect on one holistic platform. As a result, this platform grew across the world, and curated over 2 billion people.
We all sign up for Facebook through the usage of our phone number or even our email address, without knowing the community standards or the policies in place. If I was to speak about them, it would take over 100 separate conversations, therefore, I will simplify it, as best I can.
What can one do when one’s picture is used in an inappropriate manner?
Whatever you upload on Facebook, the ownership of the said content, solely comes down to you. From how it is used, to how It Is shared, all of It comes down to you. For the protection of you, and your content- Facebook has provided you with a privacy setting that allows you to select the audience you share your content with- from Public/ Friends/ Except these friends- can be set up.
If with all these restrictions- your content is still being misused, there are multiple things you can possibly do. Most will get triggered, and contact page admins and ask them to do what is required to take the content off- or implement mechansims to do so. This would result in a higher publicity being provided for this content.
There are far simple ways to get rid of the content- first and foremost if you see that someone has reuploaded your photo, do not delete it. Change the privacy setting to showcase it only to you. After which you can lodge a complaint stating that someone is using my photo, and report the respective content. You can ask your friends to report the reuploaded content and ask your friends to report it as well. It will take 24 hours for the respective mechanisms to take shape.
Say this mechanism fails, there is an ancillary mechanism that you can implement to achieve the same results. Go on to google and look for Facebook Copyright Report Form, and answer the questions in a clear and concise manner.
It will take 48 hours for Facebook to respond to you. This mail will ask you questions such as why you would want the picture to be removed and ask supporting questions. Once all the concerns are answered, Facebook will establish it as re-upload of your content, which would expedite the process of removal. Furthermore, to the removal of the content, there will be a copyright claim that will be applied on the person who re-uploaded it. If someone’s account has been reported over 3 times in regards to copyrights, the profile will be automatically removed.
If all these options fail, you can directly contact the respective parties who are misusing the relevant picture. After which, you can create a document with the information from that account, and after which, this can be submitted to the relevant cyber crimes division- through which your content can be removed.
There Is zero reasons to panic- as long as you are aware of the course of action. There Is no need to spend money, all you need to do Is be aware of what needs to be done- failing which, you can contact me- I am always here to lend a helping hand.
– Hamza Haniffa perspectives from a Digital Strategist
