Fact Check: Posting This Notice on Your Facebook Account Will Stop Platform from Using Your Photos?

Claim:

Posting a legal notice on your Facebook wall will protect you from having all your posts and photos made public.

Rating:

False ( About this rating? )

For years, messages about protecting your copyright or privacy rights on Facebook by posting a particular legal notice to your account on the social media platform have spread across the internet. Most of these messages have shared as copypasta — copied-and-pasted text often used to pass along an alleged warning of some sort.

We found the latest variation of this claim began to pick up steam on Facebook in May 2024, mentioning Meta, the social media company's parent company:

Goodbye Metaverse, it's been a Nightmare.

Just in case Notice:   An attorney advised us to post this. The violation of privacy can be punished by law.  NOTE: Facebook Meta is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you do not publish a statement at least once, it will be technically  understood that you are allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in your profile status updates.

I HEREBY STATE THAT I DO NOT GIVE MY PERMISSION TO USE ANY OF MY PERSONAL DATA OR PHOTOS.

If you are thinking of getting off FB because of the volume of sales ads and trash stuff.  So hold your finger anywhere in this post and click ′copy'. Go to your page where it says 'What's on your mind?' Tap your finger anywhere in the blank field. Click paste. This upgrades the system.

Good bye annoying ads and

Hello new and old friends!

The text — which mentioned how an attorney had advised the user on the notice, as well as that every person on Facebook needed to post the notice or else they were allowing their photos or information to be used by the social media platform — was reminiscent of previous posts we've seen on the platform.

We previously fact-checked this type of claims in 2012 . We also looked into similar claims related to Snapchat photos in 2019 and a "new Facebook/Meta rule" in 2021 . In all of these cases, as with the latest one in 2024, we found the claims to be false.

The "problem" the notice supposedly solves doesn't exist. Facebook users can't retroactively negate the privacy or copyright terms they agreed to when they signed up. They also can't alter or contradict any new privacy or copyright terms instituted by Facebook simply by posting a contrary legal notice on their account.

We've fact-checked other claims about Facebook policy, including a false claim that the company allowed an "unprecedented" Facebook rule to take effect that would allow users to do what they wanted with users' photos.

Sources:

Emery, David & Bond Huberman. "Snopestionary: What Is Copypasta?" Snopes , 19 Sept. 2021, https://www.snopes.com//articles/369246/what-is-copypasta/ .

Emery, David. "Does 'New Facebook/Meta Rule' Permit Company To Use Your Photos?" Snopes , 15 Nov. 2021, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/facebook-meta-posts-made-public/ .

Liles, Jordan. "New, Unprecedented Facebook Rule Appeared on TV That Allows Meta to Use Your Photos?" Snopes , 8 Mar. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/facebook-rule-photos-tv/ .

Mikkelson, David. "Can You Opt Out of Having Snapchat Photos Used as Legal Evidence?" Snopes , 3 Sept. 2019, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/snapchat-evidence-photos/ .