A hoax can take over social media completely and when it does no one is safe- even celebrities. Back in August, there was a hoax floating around on instagram that the popular photo sharing site was changing it’s privacy policy- making all users’ content public, even messages.
Many celebrities fell for the scam and reposted a photo stating they were not giving instagram permission to access their content. When the high profile influencers reposted the photo, the hoax caught like wildfire and many people believed it was true. In the age of fake news and information warfare, users are more and more protective of their personal content, making it easier for them to believe in scams .
For the most part hoax like these are harmless, in some ways they can be helpful to social media users who might not think about their privacy online. They are harmful to some of those more high profile users who reposted it such as energy secretary Rick Perry.
the guy who handles US nukes got took by an aol-era instagram chainmeme pic.twitter.com/9o4kTvBgNU
— rat king (@MikeIsaac) August 21, 2019
These kinds of hoax have been around since the beginning of social media and some are more harmful than others. In 2014 there was a hoax that comedian Gabriel Iglesias died. There was no truth in the rumor but many news outlets reported on it and spread the story even farther. Iglesias took to facebook and twitter to assure his fans that he was still very much alive. While some celebrities see it as an honor to be part of a death hoax, it can be damaging to the friends and families of these celebs.
Seriously?! I must be doing good in life. More fake #FluffyDied shit popping up. pic.twitter.com/2mmncoTXWZ
— G a b r i e l – I g l e s i a s (@fluffyguy) November 3, 2014
It is unlikely that social media hoax will end anytime soon. While they aren’t exactly harmful to most users, they are annoying and damaging to the platforms that they are on.