The new “Use Media” feature in threads is the latest attempt to combat stolen memes and cultivate engagement

Another day, another new thread feature. MetaSoft applicationA feature will be rolled out that allows users to re-share photos and videos on their timelines with the original poster credited but without the original post attached.

Once available, users will need to long-press on a photo or video from their feed and select “Use Media.” They will then be able to draft a new post with the clip image attached, with a watermark from the original poster appearing in the top-right corner. “This is a quick and easy way to add your own creative takes to popular photos and clips without posting the quote,” Threads head Adam Mosseri wrote in .

This feature is supposedly intended to make it easier to reshare other users’ works with some credit to their original creator. Mosseri has received a number of complaints on Threads from frustrated users who saw their work plagiarized without credit. In a post last month, Mosseri said Meta was “trying to shift more distribution from aggregation sites to creators on both Instagram and Threads,” though he acknowledged that it might be “very difficult to do” when the original post was lifted from Meta. unwanted. Meta owned platform. on the company’s Instagram recently Trying to promote creators over compilers.

Judging by some of the reactions to the recent Threads update, a number of creators are still unhappy with the Meta’s approach. “It looks like blatant content theft,” said one photographer . “Quoting a post is a more effective way to share someone’s content with your own comments while tagging the creator of the content,” another user said .

In a Meta noted that individual creators are able to disable media reuse in their app settings, so it’s possible to prevent your posts from being shared in this way. (There are also settings to prevent others from posting quotes in their entirety.) However, for those who are concerned about accounts outright stealing their posts for the benefit of… However, there is still little any user can do to prevent less scrupulous accounts from copying their content using screenshots or other means.