The Steemit community is amazing, and here's a story that proves it!
Over the last 24 hours or so, we demonstrated just how well we can police ourselves when it comes to original content. A post entitled "5 years addicted to heroin - my story told in pictures" started trending heavily, and for good reason - it was the story of a young woman's struggle with heroin addiction and recovery.
On the face of it, the story seemed legitimate, but there were problems. The post was accompanied by professional-quality images of the young woman, which seemed odd to some. The poster explained that she had been followed by a photojournalist over the course of her experience, which mollified some of us. Then, others pointed out how the poster said she was from Baltimore, Maryland - in the United States - yet she used European writing conventions. Finally, someone found that the woman's story, complete with images, came from a Refinery29 article published on January 11th, 2016.
This is when the poster's story began to fall apart. Instantly suspicious of the poster trying to generate revenue through someone else's story, many of us began calling for the poster to verify their identity. Calls for the OP to provide an image, complete with timestamp, fell on deaf ears; as a result, many posters began to flag and downvote the post. Soon, the more than $5,000 the post had earned disappeared overnight.
This whole incident demonstrates how well the Steemit community can police itself and ensure that only the authors of original, genuine content get rewarded. It sets this social media platform apart from all the countless others, where it's easy to pawn off someone else's story as your own - and it's why Steemit is, and will continue to be, so successful!
Special thanks should go to @tuck-fheman, who posted the follow-up post that flagged the article as suspect, @adm, the poster who blew the lid off the story by finding the Refinery21 article, and of course everyone who downvoted and flagged the original article after learning of the deception!