As you're scrolling through your Facebook friends' vacation photos and partisan opinions about the 2016 presidential race, you might also see some long, copy-and-pasted status updates posted in an effort to protect privacy rights from the social network.
John Oliver hates to break it to you, but those status updates mean nothing. The Last Week Tonight host debunked the Facebook privacy hoax in a new video posted exclusively on the social network, of all places.
In the video, Oliver explained why posting these messages are basically meaningless. For one thing, many of these posts incorrectly cite the "Rome Statute," which is actually a treaty that established the International Criminal Court. And if you think starting off the status update with the perceived legalese of "I do declare" somehow makes your claim more valid, think again.
"Just because you say something in the voice of a southern debutante does not make it legally binding," Oliver said in the video. Take note.
Luckily, Oliver provided some guidance on the one true way we can protect our content from Facebook: posting this Last Week Tonight video on our own profiles. It's all right there in the Social Media Profile Copyright Act of 1934, which basically states that Oliver is "the most powerful legal weapon available to you," he obviously jokingly said in the video.
However, none other than Mark Zuckerberg himself "liked" the video on Facebook, possibly giving Oliver's claims some legitimacy — or just showing that he's a good sport.
Judge for yourself by watching the full video below.
Facebook Privacy Hoax DebunkedTHE FACEBOOK PRIVACY PROTECTION MESSAGES ARE HOAXES! WATCH THIS VIDEO TO HEAR JOHN OLIVER EXPLAIN HOW TO ACTUALLY PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.
Posted by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Via: Rolling Stone
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