When in Rome (again): Why that viral Facebook post is nonsense

Every few months, your Facebook friends share this post:

“All your posts can become public tomorrow, even the messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed. After all, it does not cost anything for a simple copy and paste. Better safe than sorry is right. Channel (whatever) News was just talking about this change in Facebook’s privacy policy. Better safe than sorry.

I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, messages or posts, both past and future. By 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 If you do not publish a statement at least once it will be tactically allowing the use of your photos, as well as the information contained in the profile status updates.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. You MUST copy and paste.”

While this seems “hoax-y” on its face, it’s surprising how many people believe it and share it, thinking, as the post says, “better safe than sorry!”

Here’s why this action is unnecessary and ineffective:

The UCC doesn’t apply to Facebook

The UCC is the Uniform Commercial Code, which applies only to contracts and only to contracts involving the sale of goods.

The UCC was written by a committee of contract lawyers known as the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL). NCCUSL and other similar consortia draft sample legislation, because legislators are generally not experienced in highly specialized areas of law. These consortia draft and periodically revise (as courts settle disputes and thereby add to our understanding of disputes) a body of sample laws. State legislators can then adopt all or part of these sample codes. All state legislatures except for Louisiana (which follows the civil code system established by Napoleon in 1804 rather than the English common law model followed by other states) have adopted the UCC as part of their state code and administrative rules (while no state has adopted it word-for-word, as all states find it necessary to modify it to fit that state’s particular needs).

No matter in what form your state has adopted the UCC, it would be cited as part of your state law and wouldn’t be called the “UCC” (for example, as “Tennessee Code Annotated _____”). We only cite to the UCC for academic purposes as I’m doing here, so if someone is trying to tell you that something “violates the UCC,” you know they’ve got it wrong.

Plus, Facebook wouldn’t be governed by your state’s version of the UCC, anyway. The UCC (as codified by your state) concerns only the sale of goods (and some related shipping paper such as bills of lading or warehouse receipts).

“Goods” are defined by the UCC as tangible things that are “movable at the time of identification to the contract for sale.” Facebook posts are not tangible movable objects, so UCC-derived state laws do not apply to Facebook posts.

The Rome Statute doesn’t apply to Facebook, either

The Rome Statute is even less relevant than the UCC.

The Rome Statute means The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, so-called because it was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy, in 1998 (and became effective in 2002).

It established the International Criminal Court (ICC) and delineated four types of crimes for which the ICC has jurisdiction: war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression.

While we all might agree that plenty of Facebook posts and photos seem like crimes against humanity, they are not, so the Rome Statute does not apply to Facebook.

The UCC and the Rome Statute (as well as the Berne Convention, for some reason) are often cited by conspiracy theorists such as “sovereign citizens” in their writings. If you see these references, it’s safe to assume that the entire document is suspect.

In fact, as a (very) general rule, if a writer is telling you that a certain act is illegal or that some action is required by law but cannot cite to a specific state law or administrative rule (or a federal law or administrative rule, if those apply), along with relevant court cases if necessary, the writer is not citing to legal authority and should provide you with that information if you ask for it.

Facebook as a public entity

Facebook became a publicly-traded company on May 18, 2012. In other words, part of the company became available for investors to buy in individual shares on a public stock exchange, in this case NASDAQ.

This doesn’t make Facebook “public” in the sense that it is part of the government or is a quasi-government entity, as some people have asserted. It doesn’t affect copyright or privacy settings. It also doesn’t change the contract you’ve got with Facebook.

You and Facebook have got a contract

When you set up your Facebook page, you agreed to Facebook’s terms of service (www.facebook.com/legal/terms), thereby entering into a contract. If you read these terms, you’ll see that you agreed to allow Facebook to use quite a bit of your content for a variety of purposes. You can’t change this agreement on your own, not by posting a notice on your Facebook wall or by any other means. You can end the relationship whenever you want, of course (and so can Facebook), but content that you posted may linger.

This is true of all social media: If you don’t want something to be public or to be used for a purpose that you didn’t intend, the only safe course is to keep it to yourself and don’t post it on the Internet.