Sports Pages Are Getting Taken Down on Instagram, Here’s Why.

During the afternoon of August 28th, disaster struck for the Instagram sports community. As part of an ongoing sports page ban campaign, many Instagram niche accounts were taken down due to “copyright” controversy. The flood supposedly stemmed from the security agency, OpSec, who recently renewed their contract with the NBA in 2016. Users received email notifications from OpSec claims (although speculation has arisen that OpSec is not behind the Instagram ban) notifying them of a copyright strike against their media. 

Multiple basketball highlight pages received spam of copyright claims, eventually leading to an unfortunate disable or deletion. The list amasses millions of total followers, essentially erasing years of hard work in a few moments. Most account owners were teenagers who had no intention of violating the terms of use, causing an uproar from the community. Sports content that was altered enough to be labeled under a “fair use” clause was being taken down within minutes. Mainstream leagues don’t explicitly note whether their content falls under said clause, leading to a grey area regarding what content modification is acceptable. 

As the list continues to grow, a question arises. Why would mainstream sports leagues take an interest in a seemingly harmless hobby? It’s a relatively obvious assumption that the highlights’ viewers knew that they were from that league, so it actually acted as free promotional content. 

The Instagram ban hit pages involved in all sports niches. Football, basketball, and soccer seem to be the primary targets, but it appears that the claims do not align themselves with a particular sport. Most of the accounts were accused of “stealing” league content, which is partially true. The pages generally didn’t credit the clips to the sport itself, but the suspicion arose from the “pick and choose” mentality that the ban took on. In specificity, a multitude of pages post the same content that another account was disabled for, but remain unscathed by the copyright claims.

                                    Examples of Instagram copyright claims.

This mass Instagram ban has taken an enormous toll on the teenagers behind the pages. The majority of them are high schoolers and college students looking to make side cash and now have had years of hard work erased within moments. The accounts themselves are harmless, merely posting videos of the sport they love, yet leagues have taken a unique initiative to delete their movement. We aren’t talking about a significant competitor to the billion-dollar corporation; what we’re seeing is simply a group of teens who like to edit videos and post them on the internet. By striking down these pages, it essentially discourages creativity and entrepreneurship within the youth population.

As stated previously, these pages all edit the videos to fall under the “fair use” law. The clips contain edited effects, music, and other factors that are considered “parodies” and “commentary,” two of the law’s pillars. 

As our interest grew, we talked to an anonymous account owner who has previously been affected by unwarranted bans. He noted, “It’s a challenging situation to be in. Seeing all your hard work gone, all of a sudden, can be heartbreaking. Since my sophomore year, I’ve been working on my account, spending countless hours trying to provide the best content to grow. After I lost my account, I just didn’t have the motivation for social media anymore. It really threw me off.” 

A lot of these teens are in similar situations. Losing their accounts is a huge turn off for continuing to do what they love. On top of it all, Instagram has essentially turned a blind eye to account appeals. Most appeal forms have fallen on deaf ears, with responses coming from a seemingly automated system. 

Although many of these sports niche accounts are getting taken daily, it isn’t official that leagues such as the NBA, NFL, MLB, and La Liga are behind the bans. 

After talking to a few account owners, many believe that it’s not the actual leagues, but simply someone trying to take out the competition. By taking out all of these sports accounts, it creates a greater demand for sports content. Therefore, Instagram’s algorithm will display sports content more often on pages that aren’t taken down, hence, making those accounts perform better. While speculation continues to arise, no facts have become empirics at this time. 

The best way to protect an account from getting a copyright strike is by taking down any posts that belong to the major leagues. This may be time-consuming if there are thousands of posts; however, it will be worth it in the long run. In the end, while the chances are low, unfair usage of copyrighted content can be classified as a borderline felony, making it imperative always to give credit where it is due. Although small accounts generally receive recognition of a large magnitude, the issue may still arise. 

Disclaimer: To the fullest extent of the law, Genfluencer will not be held directly or indirectly liable for any opinions formulated on the leagues and/or strategies discussed within this article. The opinions presented within this piece are protected through the first amendment of the United States of America constitution’s constitution. The information presented remains speculatory due to the lack of evidence on the matter.