What to do about users who upload images that aren't theirs?

Sometimes I come across people who are only submitting screenshots of animal websites or advertisements, or things like that. I don’t see any way to report or flag a user- and the person I see doing this now speaks another language than I do, so I can’t leave them a message. All their submissions are like this and some are marked research grade when they obviously shouldn’t be.

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You can flag a photo as a suspected copyright violation by clicking the little flag icon at the bottom centre of the photo.

If enough flags appear under the name of a particular user, they should be sent a message/warning about their actions and advising why this behaviour is not allowed by either a curator or staff member.

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Thanks for asking! Chris is right, and there’s a longer page about this issue here: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/fabricated_data

No worries about posting in English - many people may have one language in their profile and also do speak English, but also translation software can be used to help bridge any language gaps, and other iNatters are often available to help as well.

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Thanks for the link.
I just went to the user’s page and see “This user was suspended” so it’s been taken care of already.

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A couple of times my sister-in-law has sent pictures to me, and I have posted them, careful to give the photo credit to her. The data are also from her area. I don’t do it routinely, nor use images off the internet.

Oh, and Google Translate works well. I correspond with a number of French speakers, and while I can get by with rudimentary French, for more complicated things I (and they) use Google Translate. So far, so good!

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