Daniel Mace

@DanielSmidstrup You upload an image/video to Common Identity before publishing it online. We embed invisible proof of ownership in the media itself (not just file metadata or platform-tied identity) So you can still verify the original creator even after screenshots, edits, and reuploads.

@uncommon_daniel Cool, how does it work?

Time to promote your startup Drop your project URL Let’s drive some traffic

@wranglingsam Common Identity is the same philosophical shift applied to ownership: "this image itself carries proof of who created it" The next layer of the internet isn't another platform. It's portable identity, provenance, memory, and trust that travels with the artifact itself.

Platforms treat identity, attribution, and trust as internal metadata tied to accounts. But the internet runs on screenshots, reposts, clips, and cross-platform sharing. Apps like Rodeo (founded by ex-Hinge COO @wranglingsam) are rebuilding portable context from screenshots

@inkedwifelife21 @X Community Notes is basically crowdsourced cleanup after the damage is done. The deeper issue is that ownership doesn't travel with the image itself once it leaves the original post/platform.

no point in protecting your image here even with a watermark people can steal them, use as their own and @X will tell ya…no violations 🖤

@tatumturnup Dude Mavis Beacon is incredible

@uncommon_daniel This just triggered my fight or flight

I have a confession. When I learned to type, I didn't learn to use the shift key to capitalize. So for my entire online life, I tap caps lock, a letter, caps lock again. It is annoying, inefficient, and often leads to errors. How do I fix this at this point in my life?

@MarkDice @MarioNawfal @nikitabier This is a fundamental gap in platform infrastructure, not specific to X. Creators need to protect their own content upstream of publishing anywhere on the internet - e.g. embedded proof of ownership. Unfortunately content theft will only get more rampant and sophisticated.

@MarioNawfal @nikitabier This video was stolen from my YouTube channel, but X is crediting another user because they uploaded it to this app, not me, so not only do I not get any revenue for my own YouTube video being posted here, but X is crediting the wrong account as the creator. Pathetic.

$800 worth of silver or a Hershey bar? Which would you pick?

@JoNationLive @thecyberfam Ok, now put yourself in the shoes of a creator: X now has 20% less total platform engagement than it did previously. Are you more or less likely to post content on X now?

@uncommon_daniel @thecyberfam Yes! Id loose 20% stolen content BUT gain far more new content from content creators that would come to X from other platforms.

Sadly, a number of larger X accounts seem to have stolen and reposted my content recently. I love that more people are getting to see this video of my mother-in-law enjoying her first FSD drive but it's a shame they couldn't bother to give a smaller account like mine a little credit for it. 🫤

@StevenKelly82 Brutal. This is one of the biggest problems with platform-defined identity. They don't protect you when someone impersonates you on a diff. platform. You'll probably have better luck filing a copyright infringement report for each picture they stole from Twitter.

If you’re on TikTok, can you report this page please as it’s not me. Clearly someone from Twitter using my pictures!

The easier forgery becomes, the more valuable verified authenticity becomes. History has proven this many times - printing press and the resulting "pamphlet crisis", the Wildcat banking era in the 1800s, medieval trade and merchant marks. AI content will drive the next shift.

@tahini @nikitabier Gotcha, misunderstood your suggestion. Even still, social media algorithms recommend content based on what keeps you on the platform longest. There are likely several A/B tests that show how filtering out "previously seen" content reduces time on platform, not increase it.

@uncommon_daniel @nikitabier If they made this change wouldn’t it just guarantee I see a wider range of content? I’m not advocating removing stolen content from the platform, just filtering out me/a given account seeing the same stuff over and over.

I get that a lot of x is stolen content, but from a programming standpoint it wouldn’t be hard to filter out content I’ve seen posted before with the exact same text (and video) verbatim. @nikitabier

@thecyberfam @YoKeenan10 @MstrHappyJustin Totally fair. The workflow has to be basically frictionless or creators won’t use it. The value is preserving proof before content spreads.

Makes sense. I'm just trying to decide if taking these extra steps is worth the extra time it will take vs just recording something interesting and posting it to share it with others. Having to pull it to a laptop or desktop to edit it just adds friction the the process. Sad that it's necessary. Thanks for the input. 👍

Absolutely disrespectful to the original content creator @thecyberfam video stolen by two different but Mario reposted the stealer video and even adding captions to the original which it did not had before not a single credit or mention to the creator it makes me angry 😡😭.

@thecyberfam @YoKeenan10 @MstrHappyJustin Fair question! Nothing can fully prevent content theft. The value is more about preserving proof of authorship after the theft happens. so you have stronger evidence to get content removed, prove ownership, or reclaim attribution across platforms.

@uncommon_daniel @YoKeenan10 @MstrHappyJustin No, but how does that help stop it?

@JoNationLive @thecyberfam Imagine you run a social media platform. Aggressively policing stolen content removes 20% of your overall platform engagement and therefore 20% ad revenue. Would you launch this feature?

@JoNationLive @thecyberfam I would not launch this feature as a social media platform due to this tradeoff. On the contrary, policing content theft is incredibly useful for content creators. So this type of tool has to be a creator controlled tool, not platform infrastructure

The Common Identity value prop:

@GlitterPixely I love your philosophy of a multi-layered approach to deter content thieves! Agree that basic visible watermarks are too easy to remove (and distracting!). Have you looked into additional tools like invisible watermarks / pixel level proof?

Another day, another video ripped, another lesson. This one is funny, he made a whole "how to replicate this" tutorial... then used my actual assets. Blurred the cute corner watermark and called it a day. 😅 Let's learn: a tiny name in the corner is just a speed bump, because it just takes 2 seconds to erase. 💡 Protect your IP without visual spam: → Sew it into wardrobe & props → Bake it into environment design → Hide it in reflections, shadows, particles → Scatter micro-marks at different depths If removing your brand means rebuilding the scene, they'll move on to easier prey so, make them destroy your work to steal it. 🤍