The latest facebook hoax

The best way to respond to internet hoaxers...

Sammy The Seagull with his face pixellated to protect his privacy.

Over the last week, most people on facebook will have noticed some of their friends posting a long-winded message stating that they don't give facebook permission to use their photos, information or posts, and that violation of privacy can be punished by law UCC 1-308-11 308-103, etc, etc. Apparently, UCC 1-308-11 308-103 doesn't even relate to online privacy (and even if it did, I'm pretty sure that an American law wouldn't be much use for people in the rest of the world), and it turns out that the message was started by a sneaky prankster.

To me, the art of bluffery should only be used for playing good natured tricks on people and having a bit of daft fun. The best way to deal with an online hoax like this therefore is probably the way one facebook friend responded to it, i.e. by posting the following message:

"I give facebook permission to make all the people that have cluttered my facebook page with this privacy hoax rubbish to be custard pied and hit over the head with black puddings until they die with embarrassment for being gullible suckers."

Well said!

In this case it's just a daft hoax with no real consequences, but the potential danger of online gullibility is something I mention in the introduction to my book, 'True Or False: A Light-Hearted Collection Of 100 Facts And Bluffs'. Unfortunately nowadays there are some people who use the internet to write stories which are sneakily designed to manipulate people towards a specific agenda or to promote bad feeling or anger. It's always wise therefore to be on your guard for sensationalistic headlines or misleading stories, and to always take a moment to calmly consider what has been claimed, rather than taking everything at face value and allowing yourself to be manipulated. Not everything on the internet is true, and it's wise to remember this when browsing online.

It turns out that law UCC 1-482-12 409-384 actually refers to the
sale of raw oysters, clams and mussels without a licence in the
State Of New Jersey. We are therefore able to disregard
Sammy The Seagull's wishes and publish his non-pixellated face.

Changing the subject, I read the other day that apparently people who buy Charles Fudgemuffin books are 60% more likely to get promoted at work, 70% more likely to win the lottery, and 94.27% more likely to achieve all of their goals and dreams in life!

Obviously I couldn't categorically confirm the accuracy of these claims, but that's what some report* on the internet said ... so it must be true!

* For the benefit of stupid people, the report can be found at the following link:
Internet Report

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My light-hearted 'True Or False' book is available for kindle from Amazon.

However, please be aware that the statistic above about being 94.27% more likely to achieve all of your dreams in life is just made up. The true figure is of course 83.68%.

If you prefer reading things for free, rather than paying for things, then the first 'True Or False' fact from the book is republished in the following blog post:
Trur or false: Until recently, it was illegal to bake or sell a loaf of bread...

With reference to sub-section 5(ii) of UCC 1-482-12 409-384, Charles Fudgemuffin hereby gives readers permission to share this post on twitter. Click the small twitter icon below (just above where it says 'Posted by Charles Fudgemuffin').