Facebook Privacy Policy Hoax Goes Viral Again

If you've recently seen a bunch of your Facebook friends frantically posting a weird block of text that claims your Facebook is "going public" tomorrow and you must copy and past this legal jargon to your own page in order to prevent it, stop. Calm down. Don't do it. Facebook isn't changing it's privacy policies, and it doesn't suddenly own all your information. In fact, nothing about Facebook is changing at all, because this post is a hoax.

For some strange reason, the post has resurfaced on the platform in the last few days. But really, it's been around for years, and sources have been debunking its claims for just as long; according to Snopes, this hoax has actually been around since 2012. Yes, we've been falling for this trick for four long years.

The viral post you're seeing probably looks something like this:

Courtesy of Facebook

Back in 2012, Facebook even addressed this crazy rumor itself, writing in a post on the official Facebook and Privacy page, "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."

Plus, when it first appeared on timelines, Gawker went through each claim in the post line by line to show that posting the text does literally nothing. And this isn't even the first crazy hoax to make the Facebook rounds. Snopes says that an even earlier one circulated in 2009 claiming that Facebook would start randomly charging its members to use it.

Still don't believe that your Facebook is safe? You could always try reading Facebook's actual Terms of Service.

So please, don't repost this pointless, ridiculous text. It does nothing — other than spam all your friends.

Related: Facebook Is Now Testing a Feature That’s Just Like Snapchat