Over the past few weeks, a familiar outcry has been making waves across Facebook. People have become worried about their personal information and a declaration has once again surfaced — as it seems to do every year — making one’s “privacy rights” known within the context of their social network status updates.
Last week, Facebook officially released a statement on the matter regarding this very familiar hoax that seems to date back, at the very least, to the days of MySpace. Well, Last Week Tonight‘s John Oliver has put in his own two cents on the pressing issue.
The above video — posted exclusively to the popular social network — finds Oliver pointing out the inaccuracies contained throughout the warning all your friends inexplicably keep copying and pasting to their pages. In one iteration of the hoax, users start the paragraph with the wording, “I do declare the following,” which Oliver comments on by saying, “Let me stop you right there, and this is important. Just because you say something in the voice of a Southern debutante does not make it legally binding.”
Further citing the legal binding power of the “Rome Statute,” or “Rome Statue” if you will, our intrepid host encouraged the posting of the above video to those who are truly concerned about preserving their content by stating, “Because the only true way to protect your content on Facebook is to post this video. Yes, the one you are currently watching starring me John Oliver, as it is clearly stated in the Social Media Profile Copyright Act of 1934.”
Sure, the host’s call to arms may not hit the millions of users that are once again falling for this unsubstantiated means of protecting themselves. Hell, my mother still doesn’t understand the difference between public commenting and private messaging. But hey, Mark Zuckerberg “liked” the video in question and that’s something. Right?
