The Chain Message against Facebook New Guidelines is a Hoax

Sounds familiar? You may have seen this message showed up multiple times in your Facebook Feed in the last 48 hours. The message basically urges users to copy and paste the post so that Facebook does not use users’ content for commercial use without permission. But let me tell you this, it’s a hoax!

The message started spreading a few days after Facebook announced its new privacy guidelines which allowed users to comment on proposed changes, but not to vote. (You probably were not aware of the fact that before last week Wednesday – 21/11/2012, users had the rights to vote on the changes made on Facebook.) The company decided to take away the “democracy” because they found that this voting mechanism resulted in a system that incentivized the quantity of comments over the quality. 

The idea behind the chain message is that Facebook will negatively affect user privacy by the company’s listing as a publicly traded company. It is not true! Here's the truth: Facebook doesn't own your media and there is no such thing as the Berner Convention. (There is however a BERNE Convention!). Facebook and the users are still bound to the same terms and conditions that are agreed by users when they sign up for the account; posting this kind of message on your profile will not change a thing. 

In conclusion, your photos are still your photos; you have not given up your copyright! You still have the control of their Facebook postings through the privacy and application settings. Facebook has the right to use, share, and distribute your postings, but only if your privacy settings allowed them to.

What if you’re still not happy with the site’s policies? Well, there’s nothing you can do, the only options is to not post anything on Facebook or leave Facebook.