Facebook to Crack Down on Online Video Piracy

Facebook is finally responding to ongoing complaints that it’s too easy rip other people’s videos and repost them on the social network. In a blog post Thursday, the company announced it was taking several steps to curtail the practice, which is known as “freebooting.”

Facebook said it is working on new video matching technology that will let creators identify freebooted versions of their videos across the social network. “Our matching tool will evaluate millions of video uploads quickly and accurately, and when matches are surfaced, publishers will be able to report them to us for removal,” the company wrote.

For now the new tool will be available as a beta version to a small group of media companies, multi-channel networks and indivdiaul creators. Facebook plans to roll the tool out to larger audience over time. The company said it is also improving its current procedures to remove copyright-infringing content more efficiently.

Freebooting has caused an increasingly loud contingent of YouTube stars to complain that Facebook wasn’t properly addressing the problem. A blog post by Hank Green, a popular vlogger and co-founder of the video conference VidCon, claimed that Facebook’s policies encouraged the theft of creators’ videos.