Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 2.9 billion monthly active users as of October 2022. With so many people regularly posting content like status updates, photos, and videos, an important question arises – who owns all this user generated content being published on Facebook?
What does Facebook’s Terms of Service say about content ownership?
According to Facebook’s Terms of Service, when users post content on Facebook, they grant the platform a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any intellectual property content that they post on or in connection with Facebook. This license ends when the user deletes their content or account.
So in short, when you post something on Facebook, you still own the copyright to the content but you are granting Facebook a license to display, distribute and reproduce your content on the platform. The content also may be shared or embedded elsewhere by others.
Key clauses in Facebook’s Terms of Service regarding content ownership:
- For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), users specifically give Facebook a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of their IP content.
- Users can end this license any time by deleting the content or account.
- By uploading or posting content, users also allow others to access and share their content on and off Facebook as permitted by the platform settings.
- Users own all of the content and information they post on Facebook.
What type of content do users own on Facebook?
Here are some of the main types of content users own and have copyright over on Facebook, while granting the platform a license:
Text posts
Any original text users post like status updates, comments, stories, notes, etc. are owned by the user.
Photos
Users own the copyright on any original photos they upload. Even if others can share and embed the photos, the user retains the copyright.
Videos
Original videos uploaded belong to the user. Others may be able to view, share and embed the videos based on privacy settings.
Illustrations
Any original artworks, drawings or illustrations uploaded by the user are owned by them.
Live videos
Live broadcast videos are also owned by the user posting them.
What rights does Facebook have over user content?
While users retain ownership of their content, Facebook gains the following rights over anything posted on its platform:
- Display: Facebook can display the content on its platform, like in the user’s profile, news feed, groups, pages etc.
- Distribute: Facebook can distribute and make the content available across its networks and apps like Messenger, Instagram, Oculus etc.
- Reproduce: Facebook can reproduce user content by copying it across its networks, servers, archives etc.
- Modify: Facebook can modify or adapt user content to technically display it or index it better.
- Publicly perform: Facebook can show, play or stream user content publicly.
- Sub-license: Facebook can grant sub-licenses to its partners to display or distribute user content.
Essentially, Facebook gains enough rights to be able to technically manage and operate its platform and services using user content.
Can Facebook use user content in ads?
Facebook’s ad policies have specific rules about using user content in ads:
- Facebook can use a user’s name, profile photo and content they have shared publicly to show ads to their friends. For example – “John Doe liked Example Page”. Users can opt out of this in ad preferences.
- Facebook cannot use a user’s personal content like photos in ads without their explicit consent.
- Pages and advertisers also cannot use users’ content without permission.
So in summary, while Facebook may show users’ names and profile pics alongside actions they have taken publicly, personal user content cannot be used directly in ads without explicit permission.
What happens when a user account is deactivated or deleted?
When a user deactivates their Facebook account, their information remains on Facebook but is not accessible to others. If the account is reactivated, the content is restored.
However, when a user permanently deletes their account, their information including posts, photos, videos, comments etc. is removed from Facebook. Backup copies may remain in Facebook’s system but are erased over time. The license granted to Facebook ends.
In some cases, content users have shared with others like messages may remain visible to those users after account deletion. But generally, permanent account deletion removes user generated content from Facebook.
Best practices regarding content ownership on Facebook
Here are some best practices users should follow regarding content they post on Facebook:
- Be thoughtful about what personal and professional content you upload.
- Use privacy settings to limit who can see your content.
- Disable content tagging permission selectively to prevent unwanted visibility.
- Disable personalized ads with your information to opt out where possible.
- Monitor your brand and content for unauthorized usage.
- Delete content you no longer wish to share publicly.
- Remove tags that expose your content more broadly.
Conclusion
To summarize:
- Users own the copyright on content they post on Facebook.
- Facebook gets a license to display and distribute this content on its platform.
- Users retain ownership rights and can remove content anytime.
- Facebook has guidelines about using content in ads or elsewhere.
- Deleting your account removes your content from Facebook.
- You should manage privacy settings and monitor content appropriately.
So while Facebook’s terms grant the platform certain rights, users still own their content and can choose what to share or remove. Following best practices allows managing your content ownership.