I went from never reporting a pin in my seven years on Pinterest to reporting four stolen pins on Pinterest in one week. Luckily, reporting theft on the platform is incredibly easy on both mobile and desktop. Also, in my experience, Pinterest doesn't take long at all to respond to complaints. Reporting a pin might seem scary, but if your images are being stolen to promote other websites, it's your right to lay down the law.
1. Report the Pin
On the pin that you would like to report, click the icon with three dots. This is in the upper left corner on both mobile and desktop.
A pop up will appear that asks why you would like to report this pin. For stolen images, select "My intellectual property."
Next, select "This infringes my copyright." Check out this article about the difference between copyright and trademark.
2. Provide contact information
Don't worry, Pinterest doesn't want to send you spam mail, this is just part of the formal process of reporting a stolen pin on Pinterest.
3. Identify your work
Provide a link to your original blog post that uses the image. I've never provided any additional detail, and all four times a simple link has been sufficient. In this example, the stolen pin was from my Living Room Color Scheme post.
4. Identify the material you want removed
The url of the pin in question will be pre-filled here. You can also opt to apply a strike to the account that stole the pin. While this may also feel intimidating, I encourage you to apply a strike. To steal a pin, the user has to manually change the link to their website or download and re-upload your image. It's a very intentional action that is all too common.
5. Confirm and submit
Before you submit, agree that the information in the notice is accurate and that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use of the copyright material is not authorized by the copyright owner (you). For example, if you previously agreed to allow this person to use your image, then you shouldn't report their content. You must also agree that you are the owner of the content and type in your name to act as a signature.
NOTE: As soon as you click the request, you will receive a confirmation number in a pop-up on the screen. Jot that down because you will not receive an email confirmation. The only email you will receive is when the DMCA request is complete. For this reason, you may also want to jot down the link of the stolen pin as well in case you want to follow up.
Pinterest makes it much easier to report stolen content that Instagram, so props to them. Additionally, it's a very smooth process to report on both mobile and desktop.
Want to learn how to find stolen pins on Pinterest?
Let me know in the comments if you'd like to learn how to find your stolen pins on Pinterest, and I'll share my tips.
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