How we protect intellectual property (IP) rights

We take IP rights seriously and do not allow posting of content that violates someone else’s IP rights. We put measures in place to help people protect their IP and educate people who post content that violates someone else’s IP rights.

How we approach proactive IP enforcement

We take IP protection very seriously and we’re committed to keeping our platforms safe for content creators and businesses to connect and share on Facebook and Instagram. Part of that work involves taking proactive steps to protect IP and combat piracy and the sale and promotion of counterfeit goods.
Although only rights holders know with complete certainty what content is or is not authorized, if we have a strong basis to believe that something may be infringing, we take action – from removing or blocking the content, to disabling the responsible account or removing it across all of our recommendation surfaces.
In order to identify potential violations, we use various automated detection tools that take into consideration a range of different signals, including but not limited to: insights from machine learning models, the presence of certain keywords associated with piracy and counterfeit activity and prior IP violations from problematic accounts. This technology helps us identify and remove potentially violating content on our platforms before it is reported by rights holders, and we remove that content where appropriate.
You can learn more about our comprehensive approach to protecting IP, including more on our proactive measures, in our IP companion paper.

Reporting IP violations

To ensure quick and accurate handling of IP reports, we provide dedicated channels for rights holders to report content they believe infringes their rights, including our online reporting forms available for Facebook and Instagram. We have custom forms dedicated to copyright, trademark and counterfeit issues, which ensure that we receive all the information we need to process an IP report. Rights holders can report different types of content they identify on either Facebook or Instagram, ranging from individual posts, photos, videos or advertisements to an entire profile, account, Page, group or event, if they believe the latter to be infringing in its entirety.

How we process IP reports

Each report submitted by a rights holder is processed by our IP operations team, which is a global team of trained professionals who provide around-the-clock coverage in multiple languages. If the report is complete and valid, the team will promptly remove the reported content, typically within a day or less, and confirm that action with the rights holder that reported it (or its authorized representative). If any information is missing or if the team needs to clarify anything, more information may be requested, and the rights holders can communicate directly with the team via email in those situations.

Handling repeat infringers

In addition to removing reported content, we disable the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances. Our repeat infringer policy applies to IP violations committed via Facebook profiles and Instagram accounts, including copyright, trademark, and counterfeit. We also take action against other sources of content that may be engaging in repeat infringement, such as Facebook Pages. In addition to removals, these actions may include other restrictions, including prohibiting the posting of content for a set period of time.

Other tools for IP rights holders

We continue to invest in developing additional tools to help rights holders report potentially infringing content on Facebook and Instagram. Many of these products, such as Rights Manager and Brand Rights Protection, have been developed based on feedback from rights holders, and our collaboration with rights holders has resulted in numerous enhancements to Meta's policies and procedures over the years.

Rights Manager is a tool that identifies videos on Facebook and Instagram, including Live videos, that match rights holders' copyrighted content. Participating rights holders can upload reference files into the tool and, when a match is detected, decide how they want to action the matching video. These actions include a block, preventing the video from being viewed by anyone other than the uploader. Additional options include choosing to claim available ad earnings, monitoring the video, or reporting the video as an IP violation. Separately, we also make use of the third-party service Audible Magic, which flags uploaded videos and prevents them from being viewed by others when an audio match is detected.

Brand Rights Protection is an easy-to-use tool that helps enrolled rights holders remove content that misuses their intellectual property, especially counterfeit products and trademark violations like the unauthorized use of a logo. It provides an interface for brands to identify and report trademark violations, counterfeit products and copyright infringement in ads, Marketplace, Shops, Instagram accounts and certain types of posts and groups. The tool also offers the ability to review and report ads that have been automatically detected based on saved reference images and a detailed reporting dashboard.

Supporting people whose content is reported

We care about people who use Facebook and Instagram, and we work to keep them informed about IP practices that may affect them and to safeguard against potential mistakes or overreach by rights holders. These efforts include employing our global IP Operations team to review IP reports and remove content only in response to valid reports. We believe that review by people is important to help ensure that submitted reports are valid and complete, and to guard against reports that may be fraudulent, erroneous, or submitted in bad faith.
We also take steps to educate users when we remove content in response to an IP report. In particular, we send notifications to users informing them that content was removed for IP reasons, and providing information about the report and reporting party. Users are also told how to contact the reporting party and, where applicable, are provided information about how to contest the removal. For example, if the content was reported and removed pursuant to the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the user may submit a counter-notification. Similarly, if the content was removed based on U.S. trademark rights, the user may submit an appeal.
We believe that educating users about our IP practices also helps them make more informed decisions about sharing content on our services. Included in the notifications we send to users who have had content removed are specifics on our repeat infringer policy, including messaging that we may disable the accounts of users who continue to post infringing content. In addition, our Intellectual Property Help Centers across Facebook and Instagram provide information concerning copyright, trademark, and other aspects of IP law.