John Oliver Explains Why That Facebook Copyright Statement Is Dumb, and Maybe You'll Listen to Him

As every website has been attempting to inform you since 2012, copy-pasting several paragraphs of dense legal voodoo onto your Facebook wall does not somehow exempt you from the terms of service that bind all Facebook users. If Facebook decides it wants to start using your content in some way you don’t like, your legal options include: don’t put that content on Facebook. Or: stop using Facebook altogether. If you won’t believe us, please believe John Oliver.

Here’s a Facebook-only video Oliver made to address the meme that just refuses to quit, despite the fact that “this meme is a useless hoax” was the top news story in the U.S. yesterday. Please take it from a funny comedian who is also one of the biggest renewable traffic sources in the Facebook blogowhatever: stop it.

Although it’s worse than actually doing nothing, the copyright boilerplate hoax does express Facebook users’ sincere desire to control their own information and protect their privacy. What can they do about that, John Oliver?

“The only true way to protect your content on Facebook is by posting THIS video.”

And Mark Zuckerberg agrees, so you know this is information you can trust:

[Last Week Tonight/Facebook]