From being a luxury to being a necessity, the internet has come a long way. Today, the internet has answers to anything and everything under the sun. With thousands of articles and tons of data on every topic, the internet has left us all spoilt for choice. The sheer volume of content available online is great for users, but it also becomes next to impossible to monitor and verify every single piece of information for authenticity. This, in turn, leads to rampant plagiarism. 

As if online plagiarism isn’t frustrating enough, it becomes even more problematic when search engines rank the stolen content above the original content. While content theft is a threat to originality, one can always fight back with the help of the internet. In today’s day and age, one can not only detect plagiarism with ease but can also take preventive measures to safeguard their content. Here are 3 ways to identify online plagiarism: 

1. Google the title of your article: One of the simplest ways to detect content theft is by searching the title online. Most of the time, people who copy content are so lazy that they even fail to rewrite the title of the article. If one finds two articles with the identical title, there is a high chance of it being plagiarized. By googling a specific title, one can easily check if the content has been stolen. 


2. Set Google Alerts: At times, online content thieves change the titles of the blog post in an attempt to mask plagiarism. With so much data available online, it can be hard to detect plagiarism by reading each and every article on a particular topic. Instead, one can use Google Alerts as a tool to identify stolen content. By setting a Google Alert, one is providing Google with details like what terms or phrases to search for, what kind of websites to search, etc. If Google detects that content has been stolen, Google Alerts can notify one about it via email. 


3. Use plagiarism checkers: Another foolproof way to check for online plagiarism is by using a plethora of plagiarism checkers readily available on the internet. If one isn’t sure if an article or blog post is copied, it can be easily determined by using plagiarism checkers. Our writing tool is equipped to accurately identify plagiarism in any piece of text. 

When it comes to plagiarism prevention, one can use various online tools that protect content from theft. If an author is using the WordPress content management system, they can check out a few useful plugins like the WP Content Copy Protection plugin. These plugins disable selection and the ability to copy text from the article. They also prevent images from being downloaded and even disable the right-click option on the website. These measures make it very difficult for content thieves to clone content on multiple online platforms. 

Removing plagiarized content
Here are a few steps one can follow to remove stolen content from the web:

1. Document the content theft: First and foremost, take screenshots of the stolen content in such a way that the page URL and published date are clearly visible. Then take similar screenshots of the original content. By comparing these screenshots, one can easily identify which article in the original and if the content has been copied. 


2. Write to the website admin: Once the proof has been gathered, write to the website owner or admin to inform them about copyright violation. Share proof of plagiarism and request them to take down the stolen content.


3. Get help from the host administrator and DMCA: If despite multiple requests, the plagiarized article is not taken down, the issue can be escalated to the host administrator. One could even send a DMCA (The Digital Millennium Copyright Act Takedown Services and Website Content Protection) take-down notice to the site administrator. If the site owner doesn’t comply with the notice, then the ISP can remove the content and legal action may be taken against the website.


4. Talk to an attorney who specializes in data plagiarism: If none of the above steps helps, then one needs to take a legal course of action with the help of a lawyer who has expertise in dealing with plagiarism. 

Check out other posts on plagiarism on our blog to learn more!