Twitter is beginning to show signs of strain as users upload full movies that have not been removed. A symptom that the social media giant is not strictly enforcing its policy against copyright infringement.
This weekend, a user who tweeted over 50 2-minute segments of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift went viral. Forbes said that the account had been deleted, but it looks like the media didn’t do the same right away. Also removed were links to the movies Hackers (1995) and Avatar (2009/James Cameron).
Even though some of the more popular movie threads have gone viral and been removed from Twitter, some movies, including Need for Speed and the Japanese superhero film Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Forever, can still be viewed on the social media platform. Some people are even uploading full episodes of television shows like this one of SpongeBob SquarePants.
According to its website, Twitter will respond to reports of alleged copyright violations, such as the unauthorized use of a copyrighted image as a profile or header photo, the unauthorized use of a copyrighted video or image uploaded through our media hosting services, and Tweets that link to allegedly infringing materials.
It shouldn’t come as a shock to learn that Twitter prohibits the distribution of full movies. But because of recent changes in the company, it seems like the platform is only being run by a small group of people.
Musk’s initial plan after taking over was to introduce long, 40-minute videos for Twitter Blue subscribers, but that may have to be put on hold for the time being if the site’s automated copyright enforcement system cannot be fixed.
As if Twitter’s mounting problems weren’t enough, the site’s vulnerability to legal action has been further exacerbated by a copyright system that isn’t working properly.
As of this writing, the Federal Trade Commission is looking into Twitter and there are a number of class action lawsuits against it. If there is any silver lining to Twitter’s impending doom, it’s that users will have time to catch up on Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes.
