What I Learned From A 4-Day Medium Suspension
A warning for fellow writers
Late February, I opened my email to find a message from Medium Support. The subject line read “your account on medium,” and I started reading with trepidation. The message explained the team had identified instances of plagiarism or copyright violations on my account, and I had 24 hours to meet the following criteria:
- Remove all writing you do not have the copyright or permission to use. Citing the source does not supplant the necessity of securing these permissions.
- Remove all photographs which you do not own or do not have an unrestricted license for reuse. Citing the source does not supplant the necessity of securing these permissions.
- Mark and cite all passages or quotations taken from other sources (otherwise known as Mosaic Plagiarism).
The message ended by saying,
Please fix all these issues within the next 24 hours and reply to this email for an account review.
If you do not, the account and/or posts will need to be suspended in accordance with our Terms and Policies.
Thank you.
Medium Trust and Safety
I read the message multiple times thinking it had to be a mistake. I run all my articles through Grammarly’s plagiarism check and am careful to link articles and quote sources. Plagiarism is a four-letter word, in my opinion, and this email felt like a slap in the face.
I immediately wrote back apologizing for whatever oversight I made and asked for further clarification. I’ve written more than 100 articles on the site. Could they be more specific?
I wasn’t sure how to go back through each piece, so I suppose I was looking for a shortcut. Going back through 100+ articles seemed akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. I posted in a Facebook group for Medium writers asking if anyone had dealt with this issue. No one had.
I kept writing and waiting. It took 30 days to get a reply. When it came, a wave of nausea flooded over me.
Hello,
Unfortunately, we have found instances of plagiarism and copyright violation on your account after your self-audit.
Medium suspended my account.
How I messed up
Luckily, this email provided two specific instances where I’d violated Medium’s terms and included screenshots and links to the articles.
The first violation was from an article titled, “Should You Eat Protein Before Bed.” I included results from a scientific study but didn’t link the research itself. This was a complete oversight and an honest mistake. I can’t describe how dumb I felt. The article didn’t get much exposure and hadn’t made much money, so I decided to delete it.
The second violation was from my most popular article, “If You Want a Body Like Mine, Don’t Do What I Do.” It has more than 30,000 views and generated four figures in income. The screenshot showed I’d paraphrased from another article on the internet. I knew this. I retold a story and linked it back to the original.
When I went back and looked, I found the link I included didn’t work. I couldn’t believe it. Somehow I messed up the copy and paste. Of course, I fixed the broken link, but I wasn’t sure if I’d somehow violated what Medium specifies as mosaic plagiarism.
CopyLeaks explains,
This is when the writer takes passages from a source and doesn’t use quotation marks. It can also be replacing words for synonyms to appear as your own kind of writing. It is important to remember to include the quotation marks even if it is a paraphrase as this indicates the source you used.
I had paraphrased and included a (broken) link to the original author, which I incorrectly assumed was okay. I don’t have a background in reporting or writing, so I hope other writers can forgive my ignorance on this issue. It’s not a mistake I will ever make again, and I’ve since edited the article to include direct quotes.
What happened next
The email specified my violations included the following links but wasn’t limited to those two alone. I questioned everything I’d ever written. I went back to the beginning looking for broken links, missed references, or places that should include direct quotes. I didn’t find anything else.
I replied, letting Medium know I’d fixed the violations and asked if they could restore my account. This was Friday afternoon. I feared it would take another 30 days to get back to me.
In the meantime, I could read articles on the site, and I continued to have access to all of my stories.
Monday afternoon, I got a reply.
Hallelujah!
Takeaway
The entire experience is embarrassing and not easy to write about. I imagine my followers unsubscribing in droves. I hope they’ll understand my mistakes were made out of ignorance and failure to double-check my links before publishing.
I want to share what happened to keep anyone else from making the same mistakes. I spent four days wondering how I would make up the lost income and if I’d have to start over on a different platform. It wasn’t fun.
Here’s what I learned:
- Double and triple check your links to make sure they aren’t broken
- Before hitting publish, reread your article to make sure you haven’t accidentally missed referencing your sources
- Use direct quotes even when paraphrasing
Thanks to Medium for restoring my account so quickly. It feels good to back on the right side of the law.