If you steal a tweet, it’s content piracy.
Now, let’s back up here. I’m not just talking about people who coincidentally tweet the same thing, or retweet or quote other people. I’m not talking about any of those things — I’m talking about reposting tweets on your own account as if you composed them. Even if your account description says you don’t own the tweets, that’s not owning up to what you’re doing or giving credit to the original creator. It’s incredibly frustrating for a Twitter user to see the same tweet appear over and over again from countless accounts, especially if you never know where it came from and can’t give the proper acknowledgment to the creator.
It may seem like an overreaction to passionately fight against such an issue. After all, they’re only tweets. They’re a few sentences maximum, capping at 140 characters. What harm can be done?
It’s less about the tweet that’s being stolen, though, and more about the ethics. Although it is wrong to steal someone’s idea and present it as your own, Twitter is one of the many places in which this issue is found. However, Facebook has had its fair share of issues, especially with content distribution pages taking videos and showing them without credit. SoFlo Antonio was criticized for this, largely by h3h3productions, for taking videos that were clearly made by others, reuploading them and not giving proper credit whatsoever.
That problem existing on Twitter is a systemic entitlement to the ideas and content of others without their permission. While I fully support creators putting their content out to be available to the public and be used and distributed, if the creator does not agree to it,
Stop following those massive “relatable” Twitter accounts. Stop retweeting them. Stop favoriting them. Find the real people who have things to say. Find original content and retweet it, quote it, do what you want.
Just don’t steal it. Easy enough, right?
Marco Omta is a sophomore studying music production. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Have you ever stolen a tweet? Email Marco at mo183714@ohio.edu.
