Over the past few years, Instagram has seen a rise in stolen content being posted across pages. Content creators, influencers, and authors (especially self published authors and smaller creators) have suffered because of the lack of protection towards their content on Instagram.

For example: Two female empowerment pages with 1m-3m followers using Cara Alwill Leyba's quote on a post word to word without giving credit.

A world renowned motivational speaker with millions of followers not giving credit to creators for years and getting away with it simply by deleting content.

A lot of times despite reaching out to the pages that post stolen content creators don't get credit. This is because of the vague copyright policies on Instagram and the difficulty in reporting copyright infringement. Original creators of content should get an opportunity to simply report copyright infringement on a post directly especially because many cannot afford legal support. Additionally, followers should be allowed to support such creators in reporting infringement. Additionally, Instagram should revise it's guidelines on what is considered original content. A lot of time "stories" with original poetry/quotes are not considered original content. 

Instagram's course of action could be as follows:

1. Revise copyright ToC and policies as to what is considered original content 

2. Integrate copyright infringement as part of direct reports on Instagram (shown by linking original content or sharing screenshot).

3. Add a specific emoji or text for copyright which can be added to posts/pictures/captions/stories to ensure that original content can be easily identified