This one would be interesting for you, if you or your site has been blocked on Pinterest for spam, your account suspended for spam. You might also have the curious case of Beauty bites where all of your pins are stolen, the original pins from your website blocked from the search feed, so that only the spam pins appear in search linking to thousands of spammy websites. Pinterest, serously, what’s going on?
So I’m going through a nice spa treatment along with the 70-day challenge lately. It includes long days and nights in front of screens and a long list of Pinterest spam links and profiles.
If you’ve searched for Beauty Bites blog’s name on Pinterest in the last 15 days, which I know millions of people all over the world do every day, because this blog is the center of the universe, you’d know by now that I obviously run also websites like olive.bilgipint.com (don’t click on this link!).
Thanks, for saving my 7-day clean eating challenge to your related board “olive”, Verda Mullins
I must be, because all of the images from my blog lead to those websites in the Pinterest search feed. But no, wait, maybe it’s spam. No this is silly, Pinterest won’t allow that.
Search for beauty bites clean eating (that’s actually a suggestion by Pinterest) and you’ll find this:
First result: my dairy-free gluten-free challenge linking to a site called nwtpfsyvikb.pblog.pro and pinned by Jocelyn Uf Poertner whose profile has more than 100k monthly viewers.
Wait…Pinterest won’t promote copyrighted stolen pins and spam and block your original content in their search feed? Would they? Except, that’s exactly what seems to be happening. And is still going on. And it’s not just me, it’s hundreds if not thousands of other creators.
Pinners Love “Fresh” Content
“Create fresh content, Pinterest users love fresh content!” is what we always hear as creators.
Pinterest users obviously love spam too, because by now Pinterest seems to be flooded with it. It used to be a little bit here and there…but now it’s EVERYWHERE. And apparently spammers also love fresh content, it gives them the opportunity to “create fresh content too”.
A Case Study
So Ambitious kitchen just popped into my feed and I decided to look for her on Pinterest.
Ambitious Kitchen in the Pinterest search feed. Two of the first results are spam.
What do you know? Her profile isn’t blocked from the search feed, but two of the top pins are linking to what I’m pretty sure is spam. Here’s one of them.
Okay, so it leads to tastycraftbug.blogspot.com. Oh, it’s a claimed site by All recipes. That’s a legitimate site, isn’t it? It must be.
The profile saved things from Six Sisters’ stuff who obviously agreed to have their content shared and linked to the good folks at tastycraftbug.blogspot.com (if it’s not obvious I’m sarcastic, don’t check this link!).
This profile is not suspended and saved things from Six Sisters’ Stuff and other creators linking to a spammy blogspot domain.
Copyright Means A Lot On Pinterest
Wow so many ideas for apple pancakes and they all lead to different sources! Fresh content, yay!
Now, does this entire thing infringe any copyright I might have as a tiny insignificant creator fish in the Pinterest sea? You’d think yes. Is it illegal? It is.
Then why is Pinterest supporting this? Wasn’t there a 0 spam policy or something? Does zero mean something different in Pinterest language?
Pinterest Takes Spam Seriously. Seriously?
You’d think that once you report a pin, Pinterest would check and block the associated profiles too. After all, they’ve blocked and suspended so many other accounts as well lately. Profiles of creators like you and me who weren’t creating spam, but got their accounts suspended for spam without much explanation. They even blocked their websites that are actually legitimate too.
That’s what happened to my sister 2-3 months ago, when she tried to reach out to Pinterest support. Instead of giving her support, they suspended her account because “she violated their spam policies”, not giving much of a reason how. She, much like me pins 4-5 pins a day and tries to keep the content “fresh”.
I’ve heard many other people got suspended as well. But do the profiles that spread stolen pins and damage the reputation and steal traffic from actual creators get their account suspended? Are the linked websites blocked?
Nope. They aren’t.
What You Can Do As A Creator
My Pinterest analytics for the last 60 days. As you can see, they’re cut in 1/2 since this started.
- if you notice a dramatic decrease in traffic or your Pinterest analytics for one post that used to bring you more views or for your overall views check whether your pins have been stolen.
- Report your stolen pins as “This infringes my copyright”, fill out the form or send a notice to their Copyright agent at copyright@pinterest.com, report the profiles too and ask for them to be removed.
- Also contact Pinterest support and report the spam profiles as well.
For now I don’t have a better plan, as this is still ongoing.
What Users Can Do To Help With Pinterest Spam
- Always check the link you’re saving from Pinterest
- If you see a pin that links to spam report it and the profile associated with it – the more we flag profiles and pins as spam the more likely we are to get rid of that content on Pinterest.
- Support your the profiles you follow and let them know if you find their pins stolen and linking to spammy websites – you can do this by commenting on their blogs or on their own pins, so they can ask Pinterest to remove their copyrighted work.
I guess I just wanted to share what’s going on behind the scenes, other than the 7-day workout challenges and the recipes you’ll see next week.
