Memes, Facebook and a Different Kind of Content Theft

Typically, on this site, I discuss plagiarism and other content misuse issues that involve a plagiarist or an infringer directly misusing another’s work or misrepresenting their own.

However, occasionally, I am reminded that our creations are vulnerable to more than plagiarists and pirates. Sometimes, our work is just a casualty in a different fight.

For example, in July 2017, I talked about how Photobucket was shaking down its users. Photobucket had long been a free image hosting service but abruptly began charging $399 for the right to embed images. The company has since backed down from that. However, that doesn’t change the fact that thousands of users had their images disappear overnight.

However, last week was one of the biggest reminders of how fragile the internet can be. Though it’s admittedly a low-stakes fight, it shows us how one person can wipe away years of work by thousands of people.

More than anything, it’s a cautionary tale and a reminder of how quickly things can change.

What We Do in the Couponing Shadows

In June 2020, What We Do in the Shows (WWDITS) fans created a Facebook group entitled What We Do in the Shadows (Memes). Predictably, it was a place for fans to post and share memes about the show.

The group became very popular. Over the next four years, it grew to over 100,000 members, making it one of the largest groups focused on the show.

However, shortly after the group hit 100,000 members, things began to get weird. The group administrator, Boujemaa Chaaban, posted a transphobic message. This angered members of the group not just due to its transphobic nature but because it was completely off-topic.

Chaaban deleted the post following the backlash. However, soon after that, he announced that he was changing the group to a couponing group. Soon after, he changed the group’s name to Couponing Dollar General/Clearance Deals of the Day! Immediately after that, he banned the posting of WWDITS content and began banning members who complained.

It’s unclear how or why Chaaban was made the group’s administrator. In one thread, the previous admin, Jim Tamer, said he turned the group over to him because managing the large group was causing problems for him. However, in another thread, Chaaban claims to have purchased the group for an undisclosed sum.

Either way, the goal was obvious. On the group’s new “About this Group” page, Chaaban says he will earn money from the Amazon Associates Program. That makes the group’s 100,000 members a potentially lucrative target.

As of right now, the drama is still unfolding. Some members remain in the group and continue to protest/troll the operator. Others, however, have created new groups that, while smaller, are focused on the topic.

Why This Is an Important Lesson

Admittedly, these are relatively low stakes. These are memes based on a comedy show. It’s deliberately humorous and lighthearted. No one’s livelihood has been impacted by this abrupt change.

That said, the group still had 100,000 members. Dozens, if not hundreds, of those were regular contributors who made content that drew in so many people. Their work has been functionally erased. Even if it still exists in the original group, it’s no longer what the group is about.

To make matters worse, those members must deal with the fact that they unwittingly contributed to couponing spam. Though it is not their fault, it still hurts.

The truth is that any time you post your work on someone else’s website, you’re trusting them with it. That trust can always be betrayed. Facebook itself could close someday. YouTube could change its content guidelines and take down previously acceptable work. Tumblr did something similar in 2018.

If it is not your site (and you have backups), your work is only there for as long as someone else thinks it is expedient. You are subject to the whims of whatever site you are on.

Whether it’s Photobucket, Tumblr or a What We Do in the Shadows meme group, building your castle in someone else’s kingdom is risky.

All it takes is one person to pull the rug out from underneath you and your entire community.

Bottom Line

Ultimately, I feel that Facebook should share some responsibility for this. They need policies and tools to prevent group admins, particularly in large and well-established groups, from completely changing the group’s purpose.

Changing a meme group for a comedy show into a couponing group is ridiculous. Facebook should see this for what it is and clamp down on this behavior.

However, the troubling part for me is that this might work. Though the group is down several thousand members, it still has 99,000 plus members. Most members are people like myself who enjoyed the group but weren’t active in it. Many are likely unaware of the change.

While I don’t know how lucrative that many people can be on Facebook, it’s still a very large audience.

Ultimately, the story reminds us that what we post online isn’t entirely ours. It exists at the whims of moderators, administrators and tech companies themselves. While this example is more outrageous than others, it’s far from the first time a large group of people have had their work erased for little to no reason.

Any number of things could have abruptly ended that group or any group on Facebook. If it’s not an admin fundamentally changing the group, it could have been a Facebook copyright change, a copyright notice from the show or a bunch of errant posts violating Facebook’s terms of service.

In short, if it’s not your site, you do not own it. While this is a relatively low-stakes story, it’s equally true for many high-stakes situations. It’s a risk to be mindful of and work to mitigate against.