“Don't forget that tomorrow a new Facebook rule starts where they can use your photos. Don't forget. The deadline is today!”

No later than 2012 in Russian language Facebook, and then on other social networks, posts appeared and began to spread virally in clumsy Russian with texts slightly different in form, but identical in content. They scare users with the fact that the social network is introducing new rules, according to which “everything you have ever published becomes public from today.”

To avoid trouble, you need to urgently copy and post the following message on your profile: “In response to the new Facebook policy [insert the name of any other social network] I hereby declare that all my personal data, illustrations, drawings, articles, pictures, photographs, videos and so on are subject to my copyright (according to the Berne Convention). For commercial use of all the above-mentioned copyrights, my written permission is required in each specific case!”

Surprisingly, a huge number of refutations from social networks themselves and in various media cannot stop the ongoing chain reaction of reposting this 100% fake. Its author is unknown, but it is known that this is the first time it has been reported as a fake. told American television channel ABC News in November 2012. The channel’s journalist noted that the same message was distributed on English-language Facebook back in 2009–2010. So this post is at least ten years old.

The truth is that no post can prohibit anything for anyone in particular. International copyright laws apply at all times, without exception. But when registering on any social network, you must check the box indicating that you accept the user agreement. From now on, your publicly posted photos for almost any purpose and under any conditions can, e.g. use Facebook. And almost all other services that allow users to upload their content do the same.

In fact, most often there is nothing wrong with this, and the owners of the social network do not wish you harm. Without this agreement, they would not be able, for example, to launch a mobile application, because technically posting your content there can be regarded as a new publication. Yes, you grant Facebook or VKontakte the right to publish a book consisting of your posts and photographs. But you should be aware that they are unlikely to do this.

As for personal data, they are not related to copyright and are protected by other laws. Social networks most often leave reserves the right to collect them, analyze and even transfer them to third parties, but impersonally - so that it is impossible to identify you personally from them. And then it’s up to you to decide whether to trust their administrators or not.

How noted Founder of the largest fact-checking resource Snopes on the Internet, David Mikkelsen, those who do not agree with Facebook’s information policy have only two options: do not register with it or demand a change in this policy from the social network itself. In the meantime, the number of people wishing to communicate on social networks is growing steadily. Along with it, the number of reposts of this modern "letters of happiness". For example, on VKontakte it has already exceeded 322,000.