Hi there!

If you're reading this you're most likely familiar with the social media platform by the name of ''Instagram''. This is a platform where you can share your own pictures and creations. 

But like any other platform, Instagram has a common issue with art theft. 

What kind of art theft? You may ask. 

I'm talking about repost accounts in particular. Unlike platforms like Twitter and Tumblr, Instagram does not have a button that would do something like ''retweet'' or ''reblog''. (However, Instagram does have the capability to share a post on your story, but you can't share one other's Instagram post to your feed). 

There are a huge amount of accounts who built their following on other peoples art. The main issue is that many of these accounts don't credit the artist. They say things like ''Credit to the artist'' (Which isn't credit because you don't know who the artist is) or ''Dm me if you know the artist''. I think we can all agree that you should refrain from posting something if you don't know the original artist.

All art created is immediately protected under the ''copyright law''. This means that if you don't credit the artist, you're stealing their art. 

Stolen art would entail: 

- Art that isn't credited (this also means art that's credited as ''Credit to the artist'', ''Dm me if you know the artist'' and ''Credit to (website)''

- Art that's passed of as own, but is proven to be others 

- A drawn copy of someone else's drawing, without credit to the original drawing (So no redraws in your own style, only exact copies because when stealing someone's idea it's intellectual property theft).

- Art that's traced or art that uses ''bases'' but doesn't credit them.

Instagram does have the ability to report stolen art: But only if you're the original artist, which is why I want Instagram to make it possible to report art without having created it. This could be by giving them a link to the original post.

Thank you for your time.