Months ago, I posted my song, "Imitate," to my Instagram account. I wanted to remind my followers of the song and provide a listening option for those who don't use streaming services or can't be bothered with ads on YouTube (I'm with you). However, within ten minutes of posting, I received a copyright claim.

I'm glad that my song is protected. I've previously received copyright strikes on YouTube for uploading my songs (before YT Music was a thing), and I thought, "Well, at least my song is protected." However, the problem with the system is the lack of an easy way to identify oneself as the IP owner. When I emailed Facebook (now Meta), I received the following response:

Hi,

Thanks for contacting us. To process your appeal, we need more information from you. Please provide us with:

1. The original report number of the complaint at issue.
2. Identification of the content that has been removed or access to which has been disabled.
3. An explanation of why you believe the content should be restored.

Once we’ve received this additional information, we’ll continue to investigate the matter.

Thanks,

Facebook

This seems straightforward. However, the request for an explanation is vague. There are many ways to explain, but no clear direction is given. I could screenshot my PRO, my laptop's drive contents, etc. In fact, I think there could be a much less complicated way to handle these appeals. We have 2-step verification for signing in (although not everyone uses it), so why isn't there a simple method to prove IP ownership?

This is my first post. To keep it from being too boring, here's my song, "Imitate," from my SoundCloud: