Summary

The author discovered that every article they have published on Medium has been plagiarized and posted under someone else's name on Newsbreak.

Abstract

The author, a Medium writer, was shocked to find that all of their articles published since November 2019 were being used without permission on Newsbreak by another user. This plagiarism included not only the text but also the images and hyperlinks, with some articles even featuring the author's face and name. The author has reported the issue to Newsbreak and is hopeful for a resolution, as Newsbreak's content policy prohibits plagiarism. The author also provides advice for others who may find their work plagiarized, suggesting to contact the platform where the plagiarism occurred and to use tools like whois lookups to find information about the infringing site. Despite the incident, the author remains a contributor to Newsbreak and acknowledges that plagiarism is a widespread issue online.

Opinions

The author is disturbed by the extent of the plagiarism, considering it mind-blowing that every single story was copied.
There is a sense of irony noted by the author, as even an article they wrote about plagiarism was plagiarized.
The author is optimistic about the response from Newsbreak, expecting the plagiarizing account to be removed.
The author does not intend to criticize Newsbreak as a whole, maintaining a positive view of the platform despite this incident.
There is a call to action for readers to report plagiarism and a reminder that plagiarism is a common problem across various websites, including Medium.

Every Story I’ve Ever Written on Medium Is Sitting on a Plagiarized Account on Newsbreak

If Oscar Wilde was right, I should be highly flattered

It’s unsettling to see an article you wrote copied word for word, including the links and images. But it’s absolutely mindblowing to see every single article you have published on Medium showing up on a different platform under someone else’s name.

Plagiarized on the left vs. my story on the right (screenshot by author)

This morning I discovered an account on NewsBreak that has every single Medium story I have published since I began writing here in November 2019. And it’s only my stories. The entire account is based on my Medium postings.

The images are the same. The hyperlinks haven’t been changed. Hey, at least the guy is linking to my referral links at the bottom of every story.

Could it get even more blatantly obvious than a link with my name in it?

Yes, much more blatantly obvious. That’s a giant photo of my face on this guy’s account.

And here’s another one with my name in the headline.

Ironically enough, here is one I wrote about plagiarism.

It’s really more than I can take. I was hoping for a peaceful weekend morning where for once, nobody in my family needed to be anywhere, and I could sip my coffee, read and do a bit of writing. But here I am, spinning down a rabbit hole of years of plagiarism.

One of the first articles I published on Medium (screenshot by author)

What to do if you find your articles plagiarized?

If the plagiarized article is on Medium, let Medium know. It may not be immediate, but I’ve found they eventually take down plagiarized articles and accounts.

I’ve written to the support team at NewsBreak about this one and I am hopeful the plagiarizing account will soon be removed from their site. NewsBreak’s content policy does not allow plagiarism.

If you find your article plagiarized on a site where you struggle to find any contact information, Medium has some suggestions. You can try a whois lookup (https://www.whois.com) to find information about the site. Or search for the host with hosting checker (https://hostingchecker.com/). Find out more here on Medium’s help page.

I don’t mean to bash NewsBreak here

I am a contributor for NewsBreak and I enjoy writing there. I’m sure when they are made aware of this, they’ll take the account down. Plagiarism is rampant online and seems to be a problem on every website. I’ve seen plenty of it here on Medium as well. All I know to do is report it whenever I see it.

And finally…if you’re reading this on NewsBreak

If you found this article on NewsBreak, you’re reading a work of plagiarism. (I thought it’s worth mentioning since this guy will surely copy these lines along with all the others.)

Update 12/20/22: NewsBreak came through! The account is gone. I emailed NewsBreak support on Saturday. By Monday the NewsBreak team responded with an apology and told me the account had been terminated. Now if I search for the name I see the message, “404, the page has gone away.”

What about you? Have you fallen victim to a plagiarism attack? What did you do about it?

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