Copyright law – which is meant to protect writers and reporters – is being used against us. In Azerbaijan, Somalia and Florida, unfounded copyright complaints have recently been deployed to make critical reporting disappear. The misuse of copyright law isn’t new, but to read three similar stories in quick succession takes it from being a tool used sporadically (and egregiously) to stifle dissent to something that feels far more calculated and embedded.
I was first alerted to the trend last week when I received an email from Gunel Safarova, acting editor-in-chief of Azerbaijani outlet Abzas Media. Safarova’s email alerted the international community to the fact that Meta had recently blocked the Instagram pages of Abzas and a host of other independent media outlets and individual journalists from the country, following accusations of copyright infringement. Then I read a similar story out of Somalia, and another one again from the USA.
In the case of Azerbaijan, Safarova said that even though the complainants apparently provided no evidence to show that they owned the intellectual property, Meta’s automated systems accepted the complaints regardless. Articles were removed, and in some cases entire Facebook accounts were deactivated. The Azerbaijan journalists believe the attacks are coordinated and are being carried out deliberately from the same central source. Safarova has called them a “continuation of a broader campaign of pressure and repression aimed at silencing independent media”.
In Somalia, an investigation published by the Somali Journalists Syndicate listed numerous examples of independent media houses and journalists fighting coordinated fake copyright claims and content takedowns. The targeted stories were typically critical of the Somali federal government and state security agencies. Like in Azerbaijan, the online crackdown in Somalia is unfolding alongside growing restrictions on social media content and an increasingly hostile media environment (see our recent article for more).
Mid-August, stories posted by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, WLRN, Florida Politics and other news outlets were removed from Google search results. The stories all concerned congressional candidate Michael Carbonara, an entrepreneur running in the Republican primary for Florida’s 22nd Congressional District last month. (He lost, to Casey Asker.) Some of the stories mentioned Carbonara’s ties to a controversial data centre in Michigan.
David Schutz, managing editor at the Sun Sentinel, said: “Federal copyright law exists for an important reason: to protect original work from being stolen. It was never intended to be weaponized as a loophole to suppress reporting or hide inconvenient truths.”
Schutz also highlighted the automated aspect of rights management processes, noting that systems have been created that are “far too easy for bad actors to manipulate”. This, I think, is a generous take. Copyright violations do happen, and social media platforms are right to take action against them. At the same time automated, AI-driven and anonymous complaints make processing fraudulent takedown notices easier and the job of moderators harder. (Index is running a feature about this in our forthcoming magazine, a thought experiment by contributor Kaya Genç.)
A less generous take on the current state of affairs is this: tech companies are too quick and willing to trade free speech rights for access. Whatever the reason, the outcome is the same; “Page not found” are the three words that every censor loves to see.