Someone reposted your video on Facebook

You can report it if you own the copyright in what was taken, or if the owner has authorised you. Meta is plain about this: “Only the copyright owner or their authorised representative may file a report of copyright infringement.” A fan, a friend or a viewer who spots the copy can’t file for you.

Meta also says what copyright covers: “Copyright protects original expression, such as words or images. It does not protect facts and ideas.” For a YouTube creator, that usually means the copy uses one or more of these:

• Your video, re-uploaded whole or cut into clips and posted as a Reel.
• Your narration, laid over different pictures or typed out as captions.
• Your thumbnail artwork, often cropped to a vertical frame.
• Your script, rewritten line by line into a long post.

Some things aren’t yours to claim, even when the copier took them too. That covers your title on its own, the story or subject, facts from the news, other people’s photos or archive clips inside your video, and music you licensed. If a freelancer made your thumbnail or edited your video, check you hold a written assignment or licence. Under UK law, paying for work doesn’t automatically make you its owner.

Pick Copyright in the form, not Trademark. Trademark is for a logo or brand name used to mislead, not for your footage.

Gather these first. It takes ten minutes and makes the report far harder to refuse.

• A direct link to every copy. Open each Reel or post and copy its own address. A link to the Page or profile isn’t a link to the content.
• A link to your original video, and the date you published it.
• A dated screenshot of each copy showing the account name, the post and, where visible, the date it went up. Posts get deleted, and your record should outlast them.
• The rights owner’s name. That’s your full name, or your company’s name if a company owns the channel.
• A business email address. Meta shares your email with the uploader, so don’t use a personal one.
• Access to that email inbox. The form sends a one-time verification code to the address you enter, and you can’t submit without it.
• A Facebook or Instagram login, ideally. When we filed in September 2026 the form accepted a report without signing in, but it then showed an extra “I’m not a robot” security check. Signing in first keeps the report tied to your account.
• Separate lists for Facebook and Instagram. The form asks for one platform per report.
• One sentence saying what you made and what the copy took from it.

If you’d like the form filled in for you, the free pack at the top of this page pairs the copy with your video and fills in every box, ready for you to paste and submit.

Meta runs one intellectual property form for Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp and its other products. The “Instagram copyright form” some sites link to opens the same tool with Instagram already selected. The quoted labels below are the form’s own wording, as we saw it when filing in September 2026.

1. 1

   Choose Copyright

   Open Meta’s intellectual property form. Under “What right is being violated or infringed?” select Copyright. The other options are Trademark and Counterfeit.

2. 2

   Pick the platform

   Under “Select the platform where the content that you wish to report is located”, choose Facebook or Instagram. Report the other platform’s copies separately.

3. 3

   Say where you’re asserting rights

   “Where are you asserting rights?” is a country list. A UK creator picks United Kingdom.

4. 4

   Confirm who you are

   “Are you the rights owner?” offers “Yes”, “No, but I’m authorised to represent the rights owner” and “No”. A manager or agency filing for a creator uses the middle option.

5. 5

   Name the owner

   “What is the name of the rights owner?” takes your full name or the organisation’s.

6. 6

   Add the copies

   “Provide the URLs/IDs leading directly to the content that you’re reporting” takes up to 30 links, separated by a space, comma or semicolon.

7. 7

   Add your original

   “Provide an example of your copyrighted work” wants a direct link to the work itself. The form says it can’t review files stored on cloud file hosting services, so link your YouTube video. The box is short, so use short links.

8. 8

   Describe what was copied

   “Describe how you believe that this content infringes your intellectual property rights” is a short box of a few hundred characters. Say what you made and what the copy took.

9. 9

   Verify your email

   Enter your name and email, press “Request code”, and type in the code Meta emails you.

10. 10

    Read the declaration, sign and submit

    Type your name as the electronic signature. The declaration is a legal statement, so check every link belongs in the report before you send.

The labels and limits above are what the copyright form showed when we filed in September 2026. Meta changes its forms, so if a box looks different, follow the form in front of you.

Meta sends “an automated message that contains information about your report, including a unique report number”. Keep it. Meta offers no status tracker, so that message and any reply are your record.

• Meta may ask for more. If its team writes to you, reply to that message directly. Meta says “your response will reach the investigation team”.
• Meta can act without warning the uploader. Its copyright policy says it may need to remove reported content promptly, without contacting the uploader first.
• There’s no published turnaround time. Meta gives no figure. Ignore any site that quotes one as Meta’s.
• The uploader is told who reported them. Meta says it regularly provides the uploader with the report number, the rights owner’s name, your email address, the report details and instructions for appealing. They may contact you.

Most copyright reports do lead to removal. Meta’s own transparency report shows 83.19% of content reported for copyright in December 2023 was removed. That is also the latest month it has published, so treat it as a dated figure rather than today’s rate.

Meta doesn’t publish a list of rejection reasons. Its rules make the common causes clear enough.

• The reporter isn’t the owner. This is the one hard requirement Meta states. If a company owns the channel, name the company.
• The report claims things that aren’t yours. A title, a news photo or a licensed track mixed in with your real work weakens the whole claim.
• The links don’t lead to the copy. A profile link, a search result or a post that’s already been deleted gives Meta nothing to review.
• The description is vague. “This Page steals my content” doesn’t say what was copied or from where.
• An exception applies. Meta weighs copyright exceptions. Its guidance covers US fair use and, for the EU, quotation, criticism, review, caricature, parody and pastiche. UK law has its own fair dealing exceptions for criticism, review and quotation. A video that genuinely comments on your work may be allowed. A straight re-upload with new captions isn’t commentary.
• Too much in one report. Several unrelated videos in one report make it harder to review. Keep one of your works per report.

Say what you made, where it lives and what the copy took. Keep it to facts you can stand behind. This is an example to adapt, not a form of words Meta requires:

This Reel re-uploads [length] of my video, which I filmed, edited and narrated and first published on my YouTube channel on [date]: [link to your original]. The Reel uses my footage and my narration without my permission. I have not licensed this account to use my work.

If the copy only took your thumbnail, say “the thumbnail image I designed for my video”, and describe your own part: your photograph, your layout, your lettering. Leave out anything you didn’t make.

Report every new copy as a new report. Mention the report numbers of earlier copies from the same account. That history matters because Meta’s terms allow it to act against repeat infringers.

• Facebook’s terms: “We may also disable or delete your account if you repeatedly infringe other people’s intellectual property rights.”
• Instagram’s terms allow Meta to stop providing the service “if you repeatedly infringe other people’s intellectual property rights”.
• Meta’s help centre adds that repeat infringers’ accounts “may be disabled”, or they “may face limitations” on posting.

Meta decides when that point is reached. The count also works both ways. If a removed post is restored after an appeal, or because the owner withdrew the report, Meta says it takes that into account under its repeat infringer policy.

Content protection and Rights Manager

Meta’s matching tool is changing name for creators. In Meta’s words: “For creators, Rights Manager in Meta Business Suite is going away soon.” Creators already enrolled will use “the content protection tool, located in Professional dashboard on Facebook on both mobile and desktop.” Meta confirms the tool matches video reference files. For Instagram, matching has to be switched on separately.

It isn’t instant. You apply, and Meta looks at four things: whether you mainly post wholly original content, whether you have a catalogue of it, your record of past infringements, and your account’s standing. After a rejection you wait 7 days to reapply, 21 days after two, and 60 days after three or more. Meta also says: “If you don’t have access to Rights Manager or content protection, you may report individual infringements through our IP reporting forms.” For one copied video, the ordinary form is the right tool.

This is general information, not legal advice.

• Your work is protected automatically. UK copyright needs no registration or © symbol. A video is protected as a film, and your script and narration are literary works under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
• A clip can be enough. Section 16(3) covers copying “any substantial part” of a work. Courts judge that by importance as well as length. There’s no safe percentage.
• Your contract is with the US company. Since 25 April 2023, UK users’ service provider has been Meta Platforms, Inc., not Meta’s Irish company. The EU’s Digital Services Act reporting routes don’t apply to UK creators. Use Meta’s global forms.
• Court is a last resort, and a small one exists. If copying costs you real money and reports fail, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court’s small claims track hears copyright claims worth up to £10,000. Hearings are informal and people often represent themselves. A solicitor is worth it when the copier is anonymous, the sums are larger, or you need an urgent injunction.

In one batch, a set of Reels reported together came down within about an hour. In another case, one Reel reported twice stayed up while every other report came down, which is why we keep each report to one clear work and log every date. Copy accounts on Facebook often link to a website that retells the video, and those sites often re-host the thumbnail to break the link back to the original. That’s a separate report, covered in our guide to a website copying your video.