The modern-day equivalent of chain mail inundated Facebook this week. However, the letters threatened users with fates other than death if not "passed" on, such as having to pay for access to their favourite social network.
There are two notices that have been making the rounds.
The first one reads: "Now it's official! It has been published in the media. Facebook has just released the entry price: £5.99 ($9.10) to keep the subscription of your status to be set to "private". If you paste this message on your page, it will be offered free (I said paste not share) if not tomorrow, all your posts can become public. Even the messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed. After all, it does not cost anything for a simple copy and paste." (Sic)
The second one states: "As of September 28 2015 8:50pm Eastern standard time, I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, or posts, both past and future. By 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 1 308-1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute)."
Over the years, these notices and variations of them have popped up on Facebook timelines. However, a large number of users fell for it early this week; so much so, the social network noticed.
In response to the fear-mongering notices, Facebook posted: "While there may be water on Mars, don't believe everything you read on the Internet today. Facebook is free and it always will be. And the thing about copying and pasting a legal notice is just a hoax. Stay safe out there Earthlings!"
It states in Facebook's Terms and Services that users own all of the content and information they post on the platform.
However, the terms also state: "For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook."
The social network does state if the user deletes their account, this IP content will also be deleted ? unless others have shared it.
This means Facebook users own their content they post on Facebook, but by using the service, have agreed to let the social network make use of it however it likes.
Myth-busting Web site Snopes says, placing a status on a Facebook wall cannot change the terms and conditions users agreed to when signing up. "Facebook users cannot retroactively negate any of the privacy or copyright terms they agreed to when they signed up for their accounts, nor can they unilaterally alter or contradict any new privacy or copyright terms instituted by Facebook, simply by posting a contrary legal notice on their Facebook walls."
While a large majority bought into the hoax, there were also those who made light of the "gullible-ness" by posting statuses that promised unicorns if the status was copied and pasted.
Humans of New York parody site, Lizard People of New York, posted a picture of a homeless man with the caption: "I wasn't always homeless. I used to be a doctor at a top law firm. But then Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was going to make all of my Facebook posts public unless I paid $5.99. I foolishly did not copy and paste the status in order to skip the payment process. The next day I lost everything."
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