BBC Report reveals fake copyright claims used to squeeze Instagram creators

Credit: Reuters

Instagram creators say they are being hit with bogus copyright complaints, then asked for money to make them go away — and some have paid after their accounts were frozen.

Scammers file fake claims with Meta. Enough of those strikes can get a page taken down. The same people then demand a ransom, usually via Telegram, to withdraw the complaint. One creator with 1.5 million followers told the BBC he paid $50 (£37) because Meta’s appeal process can take weeks and downtime had already cost him thousands.

Meta said it understood the frustration, had restored affected content and added extra protections. Creators the BBC spoke to still say obvious fakes slip through and that proper help is slow unless you pay for Instagram verification at £9.99 a month.

‘Obviously fake’ strikes

Olly, who runs Lost in Time History, posts public-domain images or pictures he has permission to use. In 2026 he has had dozens of complaints he calls “obviously fake,” often several posts at once from the same email. After the takedown notice comes a message: pay a few hundred dollars, or face more strikes.

He paid $50 in crypto as a last resort. More claims arrived immediately. Repeated hits also got his account demonetised, cutting income from popular posts. “There’s no investigation into abuse,” he said.

Abin Tom Sebastian, of Morbid Kuriosity, said Meta was no help and that paying for support was the only way to talk to anyone. He lost brand deals that moved to other creators.

Instagram’s rules say only rights holders or their agents can file claims, and users should contact those people directly. After the BBC sent examples, Meta said it had extra protections on those accounts and that it fights scams.

Who is filing the claims

The BBC spoke to three people who file strikes without owning the copyright. They appear to be in India or nearby. They say they work for rights holders. Messages seen by the BBC include a $900 (£668) demand to lift a strike; one person said that fee was theirs to keep. Two others denied making money. Genuine rights agencies exist, Olly said, but they look and behave differently from this lot.

Why it is spreading

Copyright shakedowns are old - letters and emails demanding cash to avoid a lawsuit. Similar tactics have hit YouTube. Andres Guadamuz, a digital copyright specialist at the University of Sussex, said AI now makes it easy to fire out claims at scale. Platforms built their systems assuming the person filing a strike was legitimate. With billions of users, telling real complaints from ransom attempts is getting harder.

Police advice is still not to pay. Paying keeps the racket going, and, as Olly found, does not always stop the next strike.