It is absolutely incredible that this sort of broadcast message can still perpetuate social media in 2019. Some highly rated people have also shown that, sometimes, popularity does not equal intelligence. This is because this sort of hoax is so seven years ago, we wonder if people can remain that gullible. So much so that the likes of our incredible Usher, Taraji P. Henson, Rob Lowe, Julia Roberts and even US Energy Secretary Rick Perry fell for it.
The most amazing part of the whole thing is that it is not even a convincing message. This is why it is more worrying that even Instagram influencers are falling for it. The copy/paste/repost type message is getting rapid attention on Instagram. It spread the message that Instagram privacy agreement is changing and users’ posts will be made available for public use.
You would have probably seen the images circulating on Instagram Feed posts and Stories. There are slightly different variations of these messages but they pretty much say the same thing.
The Instagram privacy hoax message would usually go something like:
“Don’t forget the 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. Media reports talked about the change in Instagram’s privacy policy. I do not give Instagram or any entities associated with Facebook the permission to use my pictures, information, messages or posts, both past and future.
“With this statement, I give notice to Instagram it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents. … NOTE: Instagram 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 If you do not publish a statement at least once it will be tacitly allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in the profile status updates.”
The most ridiculous part of the message is that it insists that the text would only be legally valid if its copied and pasted as text. Therefore, sharing or screenshotting it will render it invalid. It is the oldest most unrealistic line in the book of social media. Unfortunately, this hasn’t deterred a lot of people from falling for it – including Beyoncé’s mother.
Instagram Hoax
Back in 2012, a version of this type of message surfaced on Facebook and was later debunked. Again, another happened in 2016 and then in 2017. Each time, people fell for it en masse. Some reports suggest that Instagram has already debunked the meme. All hope isn’t lost for our favourite celebrities as they deleted the post right after the hoax was debunked.
It is absolutely ridiculous that anyone would fall for the post as it was so badly written. Trevor Noah had a field day making a joke on it in his most recent post on Instagram, from the font used to the grammar and spellings. The notion that reposting a text will act as a legal agreement is also laughable.
We are not sure which is worse: this one or the “Turn on notifications” hoax that hit Instagram back in 2016. This was just before the social networking introduced the algorithm-based timeline. People assumed doing that would make their posts more visible on the timeline.