The Instagram Policy Hoax Dozens Of Celebs Have Been Duped By – Including Niall Horan And Tom Holland
21 August 2019, 15:50
A number of celebrities have fallen for the Instagram rules hoax flooding your timeline.
If you’ve refreshed Instagram in the past 24 hours, you’ll likely have seen the ‘new Instagram privacy policy’ post doing the rounds after a number of celebrities shared it on their own platforms.
However the post is a hoax and, according to iNews, first appeared in 2012.
The statement resurfaced on 20 August, claiming a “new Instagram rule” would be coming in meaning the social media site “can use your photos”.
It claims: “Everything you’ve ever posted becomes public from today, even messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed.”
“Everything you’ve ever posted becomes public from today, even messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed. It costs nothing for a simple copy and paste,” it warns.
As well as a number of grammatical errors it also warns users, “if you do not publish a statement [like this] at least once it will be tacitly allowing the use of your photos.”
Niall Horan was just one of the celebrities to share the post, as well as Pink and Usher, however many quickly caught on that it was a hoax and swiftly removed it from their profiles.
Spider-Man actor Tom Holland even shared it after it had been revealed as a hoax, writing: "I don’t really understand what’s going on here but everyone seems to be posting this sooo... thanks."
Rick Perry, the man in charge of America’s nuclear weapons even fell for it.
Instagram have also confirmed it’s false, telling iNews: “There is no truth in the meme.”
Similar posts apparently started appearing way back in 2012, and are having to be continuously debunked by Facebook and Instagram.
This time around, the word Instagram has been mysteriously pasted over the top of where it once said Facebook.
Although a number of celebrities were duped, the reactions on Twitter have been equally as entertaining.
“Every year really smart people share these Instagram and Facebook hoax posts and I don’t know when it’ll ever stop,” one person tweeted.
“All the celebrities on Instagram acting like all the older people on Facebook posting that ‘Instagram doesn’t have my permission image’ hoax thing is making my day!” Laughed another person.
The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, even had to warn users over the prank, writing on his Stories: “It’s not true!”
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