Facebook Doesn’t Own Your Stuff

About once every six months or so, it seems a meme (for lack of a better term) pops up in Facebook land. The text is usually a little different, but it basically says “Hey Facebook, I own my stuff and since I posted this you have to acknowledge it so there!” So, this is my canned response for those times.

Here’s the thing. First of all, Facebook doesn’t own your stuff. They have the right to use it and distribute it based on your privacy settings (and some other stuff outlined in the terms of service I’m sure), but they don’t own it.

But even if they did own everything you posted, writing a status message (no matter how much legalese is smashed in there) wouldn’t change it. When you signed up for Facebook, you agreed to their terms of service. You also agree to abide by them any time you access the site.

So please, stop spreading this around. I’m really tired of seeing it. It’s the equivalent of a chain letter. Saying “lol, didn’t think it was real but thought I should post it JIC” doesn’t make it any better. Next time you’re going to post something that seems unlikely, at least check Snopes.com first.