This Facebook hoax has been meaningless for SEVEN years but it’s making the rounds again. A version of this post was originally published on November 27th, 2012. I’m bringing this back up again today as a public service to anyone considering re-posting this ridiculous “legal” notice on their Facebook account.
By now, I’m sure you’ve seen the ridiculous copyright and privacy notices that have been popping up on Facebook status updates left and right — and if you haven’t, then perhaps your friends are simply much smarter than the masses who’ve been fooled into believing they can override the social media giant’s terms of use.
Putting this simply to avoid further confusion: stringing together nonsensical bits of pseudo-legalese cannot save you from succumbing to the rules and regulations of the Facebook gods.
Aww, you thought Facebook couldn’t use all the things you posted on the site because of your privacy settings? Well, surprise – it just isn’t so!
Here’s the copyright and privacy notice that’s been making the rounds on Facebook (a similar one was circulated in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and now again in 2019):
“Don’t forget tomorrow starts the new Facebook rule where they can use your photo Don’t forget 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 If you do not publish a statement at least once it will be tacitly allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in the profile status updates. DO NOT SHARE. Copy and paste. Wondered why Facebook was so boring!
This is good to know: It’s ridiculous to have lots of friends and only 25 are allowed to see my post.
I ignored this post earlier, but It WORKS!! I have a whole new news feed. I’m seeing posts from people I haven’t seen in years.
Here’s how to bypass the system FB now has in place that limits posts on your news feed.
Their new algorithm chooses the same few people – about 25 – who will read your posts. Therefore,
Hold your finger down anywhere in this post and “copy” will pop up. Click “copy”. Then go your page, start a new post and put your finger anywhere in the blank field. “Paste” will pop up and click paste. This will bypass the system.”
Thank God you cited the Uniform Commercial Code AND the Rome Statute, or else you would’ve been totally screwed… except for the fact that you kind of already are. (By the way, the Rome Statute? Seriously? From where I’m sitting, the only crime against humanity here is that you’ve taken the time to re-post this gibberish on YOUR Facebook account.)
One thing that Facebook freely admits is that once you’ve agreed to their terms and conditions — which you already did, by signing up to use the site — you’ve granted the company a “non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, and worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings).” That being the case, you may want to delete those incriminating photos (even though they’ll still be available on the site’s archives and backups, so good luck with that).
For those who think they can turn it around on Facebook by updating their status, here’s some guidance from Snopes, which has debunked this hoax repeatedly since it first surfaced SEVEN years ago:
Do us ALL a favor and just say NO!
