---
title: "Share or Copy? What Facebook Does With Each (2026)"
description: "Resharing a Facebook post and copying its text create two different posts, with different authors, rules and risks. How to choose, and when you have no choice."
url: https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/share-or-copy-facebook-groups/
source: MultiGroupPoster (https://multiplegroupposter.com) - Markdown version of the page above, for LLMs.
---

# Share or Copy? What Facebook Does With Each (2026)

Resharing a Facebook post and copying its text create two different posts, with different authors, rules and risks. How to choose, and when you have no choice.

LB Liran Blumenberg  ·   Updated October 23, 2026  · ~10 min read · [Posting to multiple Facebook groups](https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/topic/multiple-groups/)

![Two plump lavender clay forms, the left cradling a violet ball in a hollow, the right solid — a share versus a copy](https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/share-or-copy-facebook-groups/hero.webp)

Direct Answer

Resharing keeps the original post intact inside yours, carrying its author with it. Copying lifts the text and photos into a new post of your own. Share when the material belongs to someone else or contains video. Copy when the words are yours and you want them to stand alone.

Key takeaways

- A reshare and a copy are **different Facebook objects**, not two routes to the same result.
- Share carries authorship. Copy does not — which makes it the wrong choice for someone else's work.
- "New post" describes the object you created, **not** whether its contents are original.
- Video removes the choice: it cannot be copied, so the post is reshared whole.
- Nobody outside Meta knows which reaches further, and vendors quoting a percentage are guessing.

## Two different objects

Press the native Share button on a Facebook post and you do not duplicate anything. You create a new post whose *contents are that post*. The original sits inside yours as an attached card — the author’s name, their words, their photos or video — and your caption sits above it. Two layers, visibly.

Copying is a different operation. The text is read out of the source, the photos are pulled down and re-uploaded, and what appears in the group is a single-layer post of your own. No card, no second author, nothing pointing back unless you put it there.

The reason this distinction is worth ten seconds of thought is that everything downstream follows from it: who gets credited, which group rules apply, what a reader reacts to, and whether you needed permission.

If what you want is to put an existing post in front of a group again, both routes, the Share button and a fresh repost, are walked through in [how to repost and reshare in Facebook groups](https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/how-to-repost-in-facebook-groups/).

If you only need the buttons, Share now, Share to Feed and sharing as a Page, they are covered in [how to repost on Facebook](https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/how-to-repost-on-facebook/).

## The attribution question

This is the part most comparisons skip.

A reshare is self-attributing. Whatever else happens to it, the original author’s name travels along and readers can click through. You cannot accidentally pass someone’s work off as yours with a share, because the format will not let you.

A copy has no such property. It reproduces material under your name, and if the words were not yours, the post does not say so. That is fine when you are redistributing your own announcement across your own groups — the usual case. It is not fine when the source is a customer’s review, a partner’s write-up, or a post from a group you are a member of.

Adding a link to the original helps a reader find their way back. It is not permission. If you did not write it and have no right to republish it, the link underneath does not fix that; resharing does, because resharing is the format that keeps the authorship attached.

![A clay form with a small engraved name plate on its surface beside an identical form left blank — a reshare carries its author, a copy does not](https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/share-or-copy-facebook-groups/inline-1.webp)

## ”New post” does not mean “original content”

There is a trap in the vocabulary. Copy mode creates a *new post*, and it is easy to slide from there to *original content*, which is a different claim entirely.

[Meta’s originality guidance](https://about.fb.com/news/2026/03/rewarding-original-creators-on-facebook/), published in March 2026, says duplicative uploads and low-value reproductions of another creator’s work may be shown to fewer people. The object you created being new does not make its contents original in the sense Meta means. A copied post is still reproduced material — it just no longer says so on the surface.

The practical reading: copying your own post across fifteen groups is redistribution and unremarkable. Copying somebody else’s is reproduction, and Meta has said what it thinks of that.

## Video decides for you

If the source post contains a video, Copy is unavailable and the post is reshared whole.

This is a technical limit rather than a policy one. Text can be read and photos can be fetched and re-uploaded; a video inside a Facebook post cannot be lifted out and re-published the same way. Rather than silently dropping the video and posting the text alone — which would be worse, because the video was usually the point — the share goes out as a share, with the whole original attached.

You will see this called out before you send. It is the one case where the decision is made for you, and it is the right call: your groups get the entire original including the video, which is what you wanted anyway.

Reels and videos posted on Pages or profiles work the same way. The [Share to groups button](https://multiplegroupposter.com/share-to-facebook-groups/) sends them as Facebook’s own video card, as of October 2026.

![A sealed clay vessel that cannot be opened beside an open dish whose contents have been lifted out — video cannot be copied, only reshared](https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/share-or-copy-facebook-groups/inline-2.webp)

For YouTube specifically, [sharing YouTube videos in Facebook groups](https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/share-youtube-videos-in-facebook-groups/) covers the native-teaser-plus-first-comment format that avoids the spam flag.

## Where the link sits

When your caption includes a link back to the source, its position changes what the reader meets first.

Put the link **below** your caption and the reader gets your framing, then the source. That suits commentary — *here is why this matters for our group* — where your point is the content and the original is evidence.

Put it **above** and the reader gets attribution, then your note. That suits amplification — *the original is the content, I am just carrying it* — and it reads as more honest when the material is somebody else’s.

Neither is a ranking trick. It is a sentence-order decision, and it takes one toggle.

![Two stacked tiles, small above large, and the same two with the order reversed — the link above your caption or below it](https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/share-or-copy-facebook-groups/inline-3.webp)

## Which one to choose

|  | Share | Copy |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Who appears as author | original author, plus you | you |
| What readers see | your caption + the original as a card | one post, yours |
| Video | ✓ carried whole | ✗ not possible |
| Photos | inside the original | re-uploaded into yours |
| Right choice when | the material is someone else’s, or the original is the point | the words are yours and should stand alone |
| Groups that ban shared posts | will remove it | unaffected |

The last row catches people out. A meaningful minority of group admins disallow shared posts on the grounds that they are low effort. If a group’s rules say original text only, Share is not a stylistic preference there — it is a removal.

## The reach question, honestly

Every comparison of this kind eventually gets asked which one Facebook favours, and the honest answer is that nobody outside Meta knows.

We looked for a published source comparing the same content as a reshare against a new post. We did not find one. [Meta’s ranking explainer](https://engineering.fb.com/2021/01/26/ml-applications/news-feed-ranking/) describes a personalised stack of predictions — relationships, predicted engagement, integrity checks, content type among many others — and states no preference between the two formats. The originality guidance above is the closest published signal, and it is about reuploads, not about the Share button.

So choose on the things you *can* reason about: who wrote it, whether the group allows shares, whether there is a video, and whether attribution helps or hurts your point. Those are knowable. Reach is not, and a vendor who quotes you a percentage on it invented the number.

## FAQ

### What is the difference between resharing a Facebook post and copying it?

A reshare creates a post whose contents are the original post — the original author’s name, text and media travel inside it, and your caption sits above. A copy creates a post of your own containing reproduced text and photos. Different objects, different author, different rules.

### Which one gets more reach?

There is no defensible answer. Meta has never published a comparison of the same content as a reshare against a new post, and its ranking explainer describes many personalised signals rather than a format preference. Any specific percentage you see quoted is invented.

### Can I copy someone else’s post into my groups?

Technically yes, which is exactly why it deserves a moment’s thought. Copy reproduces their words and photos under your name with no attribution attached. Use it for content you wrote or have permission to republish; use Share when the material is someone else’s.

### Why can’t I copy a post that contains a video?

A video is not something the browser can lift out of one post and re-upload into another the way it can with text and photos. When the source post has a video, Share is the only option, and the whole original — video included — travels with it.

### Does adding a link to the original count as attribution?

It helps a reader find the source, and it is better than nothing. It does not grant permission. If you did not write the material and do not have the right to republish it, a link underneath does not change that — reshare it instead.

### Is a copied post treated as original content by Facebook?

Not necessarily. Meta’s originality guidance says duplicative uploads and low-value reproductions of another creator’s work may be shown to fewer people. “New post” describes the object you created, not the originality of what is inside it.

## Related

- [How to share one Facebook post to multiple groups](https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/how-to-share-one-facebook-post-to-multiple-groups/)
- [Auto share Facebook posts to Pages and Groups](https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/auto-share-facebook-posts/)
- [Facebook auto share bots: how they work](https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/facebook-auto-share-bot/)
- [Vary images across Facebook groups](https://multiplegroupposter.com/blog/vary-images-across-facebook-groups/)

LB

#### Liran Blumenberg

Founder · MultiGroupPoster

Built MultiGroupPoster after spending 2 hours every morning posting real estate listings to Facebook groups. Now marketers everywhere use the extension to reclaim that time.

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