Creators are up in arms over Threads’ new ‘use media’ feature. In essence, the feature is a new way to reshare other peoples’ posts. Typically, users would have to repost an image and write their own post to go along with it. But now, Threads will let users reshare videos and photos on their own, with an added watermark that gives credit to the original poster.
“This is a quick, easy way to add your creative takes to trending images and clips without quote posting,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri says in a Threads post. “Feedback welcomed in the replies.”
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Creators react to Threads’ ‘use media’ feature
In theory, this should help curb engagement farming or stealing someone else’s content without crediting them. But in replies to Mosseri’s post, creators aren’t so sure.
“Just when I think Meta can’t get more hostile to photographers they roll out s**t like this,” one creator wrote.” This is no way, shape or form benefits creators and only encourages content theft and misinformation. Do f*****g better.”
Another opined: “I don’t think this is going to encourage creators to share content here.” While a third noted: “It’s useless if you don’t link back to the original creator and post. As with the AI features, you’re only encouraging others to steal content.” Similarly, a fourth added that “it just seems like blatant content theft.”
While the official Threads account later clarified that users can turn off “media reuse,” it’ll probably take more than this to get creators on board.
