Remember when social media was on the rise and your feed was full of dodgy chain mail and ‘tag a mate’ posts that promised ‘eternal happiness’ or ‘world peace’? You’d think after all these years we’d have smartened up to the clickbait, but apparently not.
Yesterday, social media users were fooled into posting a message they thought would prevent Instagram from being able to use their content in court.
The grainy, doctored image read, “Don’t forget tomorrow starts the new Instagram rule where they can use your photos. Don’t forget Deadline today!!! It can be used in court cases in litigation against you. Everything you’d ever posted becomes public from today. Even messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed.”
The whole thing was a huge Instagram hoax, later confirmed by chief of the platform Adam Mosseri, who posted, “Heads up! If you’re seeing a meme claiming that Instagram is changing its rules tomorrow, it’s not true.”
It wasn’t just our doddery grandparents who fell for the Instagram hoax, either. A bunch of well-known celebrities posted the message to their accounts, including Julia Roberts, Taraji P. Henson, 2 Chainz, Scooter Braun, Debra Messing, Judd Apatow, Josh Brolin, Adriana Lima and more.
It’s not the first time celebrities have proven that they’re just as gullible as us mere mortals. In 2016, Gwen Stefani mistakenly thought she was talking to the Lady Gaga on Twitter, but alas, it was just a fan account.
In 2015, Kylie Jenner tweeted a meme about chemtrail conspiracy theories that posed questions like “Why are some days normal with no planes spraying and others look like this?” The worst part was the utterly shocking spelling and grammar, including “responcible” and “Honey Bee’s.”
Cher has experienced her fair share of social media blunders, including the time she copped major backlash for using a bomb emoji to show her support to the victims of an attack at Istanbul Atarturk Airport. In 2011, a fan told the 65-year-old singer she had been dissed by Nicki Minaj in a song …which she believed, without listening to it or investigating the lyrics.
If this isn’t proof that celebrities are far more gullible than we think, just watch a few episodes of Punk’d and you’ll understand my point.