I think you will agree the following situation is unfair. You have created an interesting content with bright presentation and tomorrow you will find it out in quite different VK groups. Sometimes it can even be without any authorship links. In order to prevent unfair copying, VK administration created NEMEZIDA - copyright protection system. In case the algorithm detects recurrent publications, its owner gets a strike, i.e. signal that the content has an original source. The strike in VK warns the definite public about using other author’s material.
The reasons and consequences of strikes
Moderators receive the information concerning placing not unique publication from NEMEZIDA and other users. To write a claim just open the menu in the top right corner, choose “Complain” and “Unoriginal content” option. Then paste the link to the original source post. Technical support will respond immediately. Complaints will be considered only in case the publication was placed later than June 1, 2018. Any attempts to contest posts that appeared earlier are useless. Violation signal can be received not only for pure plagiarism but also for posting your authoring from other resources subject to they have already been placed in VK by another person earlier.
Sanctions for plagiarism
One warning doesn’t involve any punishment. But if there are a lot of notices there may be the following repressions:
- 5 strikes – deletion from “Recommendations” section and restriction of repost visibility.
- 10 strikes – previous sanctions + disconnection from the advertising network.
- 15 strikes – sanction of the 2nd degree + Market-platform and hyperlinks blocking.
Communities that make money on advertising may suffer losses with penalty restrictions. In a week the strikes are reset to zero. If during this period public didn’t get any new comments, ways of monetization are restored.
Copyright strikes - information about infringement
How you can observe strikes in VK? You need to enter “Community Management” and open the bottom menu item “Content Complaints”. A new window will show data on the presence or absence of strikes. You can also find out their status here.
Controversial situations
If you consider that the warning was made by mistake and you have all the necessary evidence, you can prove that you are right. How can you appeal VK strike? It is really easy to do from the same window where you can check your strike. Choose the “Appeal” option and write your arguments there (authorship confirmation, permission to use original source etc.). Initially, each strike has “awaiting appeal” status which remains unchangeable for two days. In case you don’t react on time, it becomes active and is taken into account while counting penalty points during this week. Strikes with expired terms and appealed ones are considered to be invalid.
The ways to avoid sanctions
How can you avoid VK strikes? Thousands of social networks users are interested in this question. Any attempts to deceive NEMEZIDA are useless. It is also impossible to copy posts evading searching algorithms or qualified moderators. You just need to follow several simple rules:
- create your own unique content
- publish your posts in VK at first then on the other platforms
- give a link to the original source
If you have a strong necessity to copy someone’s article, do a definite job before posting it. You can make a rewrite of the text, use some unique images, add quotations or logotypes. Such strict requirements are not only a tool for detecting copyright violators but also motivation and encouragement means for talented authors.