Is Facebook Going To Make Your Public Photos Private On October 19?

The third and final presidential debate is tomorrow night, which makes October 19th scary enough. Social media is abuzz with rumors that there's another reason to fear 10/19.

Various news outlets are reporting that the old hoax about Facebook making private pics public has returned from the dead. There's absolutely no truth to the rumor, which looks like this:

Deadline tomorrow !!! Everything you’ve ever posted becomes public from tomorrow. Even messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed. It costs nothing for a simple copy and paste, better safe than sorry. Channel 13 News talked about the change in Facebook’s privacy policy. I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, messages or posts, both past and future. With this statement, I give notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute). NOTE: Facebook is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once it will be tactically allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in the profile status updates. DO NOT SHARE. Copy and paste.

This hoax first appeared back in 2012, which is virtually forever in social media years. A better question to ask is, what CAN Facebook do you with your photos and content? When you signed up, you agreed that Facebook has the right to utilize your public photos and text in any way it sees fit. This clause is pretty standard with any social media you're using:

For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

If you've already shared the hoax info above, please delete it and share this post instead. Spread the truth that there's nothing to worry about...again.