Julia Roberts, Rob Lowe, and even current Secretary of Energy Rick Perry were among the many celebrities, politicians, and regular people who recently shared this Instagram post in an effort to protect their photos:
Like lots of less famous users, they didn’t understand that the news was a complete hoax.
What Is the Instagram Hoax?
This particular hoax isn’t new. It first popped up on Facebook in 2012 and again in 2015 before the latest round of celebrity postings. This time around, people who shared the image on Instagram did so to protect themselves. The post states that:
“with this statement, I give notice to Instagram [that] it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents.”
All of which is in response to a false rumor that Instagram will have ownership of your content, ambiguously, “tomorrow.”
As you may have guessed, the incendiary and alarming post has no merit.
Stephanie Otway, a spokesperson for Facebook, the parent company of Instagram, told CBS News, “There’s no truth to this post.”
Of course there isn’t. But there is a mass misunderstanding of the social platforms that have become the critical infrastructure of our lives. Instagram accesses and analyzes a variety of posted content including hashtags, comments, keywords, and geotags. Then it uses this information to create customer segments that it sells to marketers. Marketers then serve ads via the platform to those identified.
In joining the platform, you’ve agreed to let your data be used, anonymized, and sold in exchange for advertisers advertising to you. Instagram wants your data so that it can sell it to those who want to sell things to you. The hoax allegations don’t make sense in the context of the Instagram business model.
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