The internet is full of scams, lies, fakes, and hoaxes. They’re everywhere, from your social feed to a popular news organization to your grandmother’s furniture blog she forces you to read. So what’s one more added to the ever-growing list, right?
Over on Facebook, there’s been a hoax going around claiming that as of tomorrow, your private photos uploaded to your profile will be made public for the world to see. And obviously, people have fallen for this. In fact, they’ve fallen so far that a post found on various user’s profiles attempts to defend the public by saying they’re giving “notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against [them] based on [their] profile and/or its contents,” whatever that means. You can read the full post below.
Deadline tomorrow !!! Everything you’ve ever posted becomes public from tomorrow. Even messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed. It costs nothing for a simple copy and paste, better safe than sorry. Channel 13 News talked about the change in Facebook’s privacy policy. I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, messages or posts, both past and future. With this statement, I give notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute). NOTE: Facebook is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once it will be tactically allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in the profile status updates. DO NOT SHARE. Copy and paste.
Seems convincing, right? Well, it’s a complete lie. See, Facebook legitimately states in their Terms & Conditions (which, by the way, you accept when signing up for Facebook) that users have total control over what photos become public and which stay private. In fact, a similar incident a few years ago had the social network come out and say the following regarding the matter in a fact checker:
There is a rumor circulating that Facebook is making a change related to ownership of users’ information or the content they post to the site. This is false. Anyone who uses Facebook owns and controls the content and information they post, as stated in our terms. They control how that content and information is shared. That is our policy, and it always has been.
This same statement can be assigned to the current matter at hand. Facebook hasn’t changed their T&C that would make your private photos public, even though they reserve the right to do so without user’s content.
In addition, the Rome Statue doesn’t even handle privacy matters. This department’s main focus is (as per The Guardian) genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Clearly, nowhere in that sentence do I say the Rome Statue can protect your Facebook pictures, so really this post can’t even protect you if you wanted it to.
In short, don’t worry about this intimidating message floating around your news feed. It’s all a complete hoax and can be proven to be a complete hoax.
You can learn more about this scam via the source links below.
- SOURCES: The Guardian, CBS News, Facebook Fact Check
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