The Latest Facebook ‘Copy & Paste’ Message That’s Making the Rounds? Yeah, It’s a Hoax

Is your Facebook feed full of paragraph long disclaimers that friends have posted about privacy or copyright infringement? They've been around for awhile -- and they're both hoaxes.

According to this CBS News story, two privacy hoaxes that have been circulating on Facebook for years resurfaced again this week. You might have seen a disclaimer that looks like this:

"As of September 28th , 2015 at 10:50p.m. 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 1 308-103 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 If you do not publish a statement at least once it will be tactically allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in the profile status updates."

Yeah, that one's been around since 2012 -- and it's not true. Another one making the rounds again says something about a fee per month you could pay to keep your status private.

"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."

Neither of these are true. In fact, the story says Facebook itself has come out and said these are both hoaxes.

"Facebook addressed the rumors years ago in a fact-checking blog post regarding the change related to ownership of users' information or 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,' Facebook stated in the post. 'They control how that content and information is shared. That is our policy, and it always has been.'

Additionally, Facebook referred users to its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities: 'You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings.'"

And, outside of looking silly, the story also says there's a good reason why you shouldn't copy and paste those paragraphs -- it could actually compromise your privacy.

"The revived hoaxes follow a new, more timely scam making the rounds last week. The latest tries to trick users into divulging personal information and sharing spurious links with their friends to get a "dislike" button on their profiles. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that an alternative to "like" is on the way, but it will not be called "dislike" and it has yet to start rolling out."