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Social Media Viral Task Violates TOS

If you are one of the many 350+ million users on the social media site Facebook, you may have noticed a few of your friends have turned celebrities.  As part of Doppelganger Week, which started 2 weeks ago, Facebook users have changed their pictures to celebrities they’ve been told they look like.  I’ve even taken a part in this, posting a picture of Frankie Muniz, since I’ve even been stopped at the airport because they thought I was him (I personally don’t see the resemblance but you gotta go with the majority). And my friends apparently look a lot like Ellen, Taylor Launter, Daniel Radcliff, Niel Patrick Harris, David Archuletta, Aladdin, and Maya Angelou  just to name a few.

And while this latest viral social media task is fun and silly, CNet brought up the point, it’s actually against Facebook’s Terms of Service (TOS).

Facebook’s TOS states, “You will not post content or take any action on Facebook that infringes or violates someone else’s rights or otherwise violates the law…We can remove any content or information you post on Facebook if we believe that it violates this Statement.”

That translates to if you didn’t take the photo yourself, or actually purchase the rights to use the picture, you are violating the TOS. Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker said in an e-mail to CNET, “Users are responsible for the content they post, but as always, Facebook will respond to requests for removal that it receives from copyright holders, in this case, we have received no such requests.”

While it’s not likely anyone will be reprimanded, it does bring up a fair point.  This is just the latest social media trend in the past few weeks in which no one knows who actually started it, but has caught on tremendously.