Does Turnitin Check social media?

Undoubtedly, plagiarism is a significant unethical practice in the academic and publishing worlds. Educational institutions and publishing firms have been trying to fight this menace with the help of trusted plagiarism detection and prevention software like Turnitin.

Although there has been a particular level of success in this fight, writers still bypass the software and commit plagiarism.

A recent survey from Turnitin, which scanned about 40 million papers written by students, indicated that; social media and content-sharing sites were responsible for approximately 30 percent of all plagiarism cases.

Therefore, this article seeks to establish the truth of this matter by asking; does Turnitin check social media?

Does Turnitin Check social media?

Turnitin does not check information from social media sites. Instead, the software detects similarities by comparing papers to its vast repository of previously submitted documents.

In addition, the software compares the submitted articles against internet sources such as online journals and blogs, subscription-based publications, online newspapers, books, digital reference collections, and library databases.

When writers steal various content from social media sites and use such material in their papers, there is not much accountability because most plagiarism detecting software like Turnitin does not check social media. However, they should because most students and professional writers use information from social media posts, comments, and portals for educational and scientific research.

In addition, most information that people post on social media is in the form of images and videos. Remember, Turnitin does not detect pictures and videos and can only trace similarities by comparing text.

Turnitin can, however, check information obtained from social media if such information exists somewhere else on the internet. For example, some companies or bloggers publish pieces of writing on their websites and post the same material on their social media pages. Turnitin will detect the similarity if you found such content on social media and used it on your paper.

Does Turnitin Check Twitter?

Turnitin does not detect if the content on an article or academic paper is from Twitter. The software checks for similarities by comparing the submitted document to authenticated and reliable information sources such as subscription-based journals, web content, and online publications.

However, information on Twitter is not verified, so Turnitin does not check the social media platform.

Nevertheless, there has been an increased use of the Twitter platform by academics, researchers, and organizations in disseminating valuable and authentic information. They do so in the form of newspaper articles, poems, emails, journal articles, songs’ lyrics, and books.

This is mainly due to the platform’s efforts in fighting plagiarism so that every user must properly cite a tweet if they intend to retweet it.

If you have to use such material in your paper, you must paraphrase it accordingly and cite the source. This is because even if Turnitin fails to detect the similarities, your professor or publishing firm will check the information and trace it back to Twitter.

Does Turnitin Check Facebook?

Turnitin does not detect if the material used on a particular paper is from Facebook. It is worth noting that most information you find on Facebook is social. Most people share such information casually with no regard for authenticity. It is the reason most similarity-checking software like Turnitin does not check the social media platform.

In addition, it is worth noting that most information shared across this platform is usually in the form of images and videos. Turnitin does not detect such forms of information because it deals with material that is in the form of text only.

Also see: Does Turnitin check mathematical equations and definitions?

Therefore, lifting an image from Facebook and using it on an article, blog, or academic paper will not get you on the wrong side of Turnitin.

Nevertheless, it would help if you were careful when lifting content from some Facebook posts, significantly articles from bloggers and business organizations. This is because of the high likelihood of the existence of similar content on publication sites such as blogs, websites, or online journals. Turnitin would flag off the similarity if you use such content on your paper.

Does Turnitin Check Reddit?

Turnitin can flag similarities in content lifted from Reddit. Unlike other social media platforms, Reddit is a more formal platform that accommodates in-depth discussions on academic and life-related issues.

Students and scholars studying courses such as computer science, psychology, public policy, journalism, linguistics, and human geography have used Reddit as an analogy for scholarly publishing. This is because information found on this site to answer questions on different academic discussions is usually verified, and students can use it for educational research purposes.

Most Reddit posts are not copyrighted, especially comments on various questions and discussions that are not academic. However, their existence on the platform means they have already been published. Therefore, using such material in your paper will get you on the wrong side of Turnitin as the software will detect similarities.

Does Turnitin Check Quora?

Turnitin does check material from Quora. Quora is one of the most used questions and answer websites, with some basic Google searches containing answers from this platform. Most authentic similarity-checking software can detect similarities in a paper when you pick material directly from the website.

Remember, Quora is a website that displays publicly available content. Even though the material may not be copyrighted by its owners in most situations, it is still public, and Turnitin scans for such material.

This means that reusing the content as it is would be committing plagiarism. Therefore, if you have to use any information from this website, you must paraphrase or use quotation marks and cite it to avoid getting flagged off by Turnitin.

Conclusion

Although social media platforms are usually casual in disseminating information, some like Reddit and Quora serve as reliable academic and life-related research platforms.

However, does Turnitin check social media? Although Turnitin does not engage most of the social media platforms for similarity checking, every writer must be careful when lifting material from the sites.

If you have to use such content, ensure you paraphrase that material and cite the sources properly.