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In January 2016, a Facebook trend most commonly referenced as Be Like Bill swept the social network. During that time, users initially posted comics wherein a character named Bill served as a reinforcer of social media etiquette, before Be Like Bill generators enabled users to create personalized versions of the meme: As is often the case with items like Be Like Bill that appear seemingly from the ether and go Facebook-wide, it wasn't long before folks became suspicious of this Bill character and his purpose on their News Feeds. Soon after Bill became the meme of the day, a backlash against the meme was started: one that first simply decried the scolding nature of the trend, then followed up with rumors that the ubiquitous comic was a vector for malware, information theft, or other undesirable outcomes: Bill proved so popular and omnipresent that multiple local news outlets carried reports about the potential dangers of creating a Be Like Bill meme. Missouri TV station KFVS, Kansas City station KCTV (clip below), and Washington, D.C., station WTTG ran some concern-generating coverage about the specific comic, typically lumping it into the general category of clickbait and associating it with the risk of all unvetted apps: As the above-quoted material stated, Facebook has indeed presented a handy way for bad actors to engage in all sorts of unpleasant activities using compelling content. However, the in some cases outcomes described apply to malicious apps in general and not specifically to any known vulnerabilities linked to the Be Like Bill meme. Many articles cited extant Better Business Bureau warnings about rogue apps that antedated Be Like Bill and referenced clickbait, but the term was applied exceptionally broadly and not specifically to malware. In short, whether an item is clickbait itself has no bearing on its potential to cause harm to computers or accounts, and plenty of clickbait exists just to drive traffic to various web sites. Of additional interest (in bold) was a widely-reproduced excerpt from the Terms of Service of publisher Blobla's (who offered a mechanism for customizing Be Like Bob memes) that purportedly stated end users agreed to allow [Blobla] to use, edit your content with our service permanently, no limit and no recover. We were unable to verify such language ever appeared in the agreement in question, and no such wording was in the their agreement as of 27 January 2016. On 27 January 2016, Chicago station WMAQ published an article which reported that the Better Business Bureau (BBB) didn't suggest Be Like Bill posed any specific threat at all to social media users and added that the President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Chicago and Northern Illinois Steve Bernas had confirmed only that the BBB was looking into the meme (and keeping an eye out for impostors). According to the outlet, Blobla clarified that the generator didn't require Facebook authorizations of the sort generally associated with malware or rogue apps: Blobla's creators also explained that the now-elided, widely-cited verbiage (permanently, no limit and no recover) was poorly composed and pertained to unrelated functions which might have ended up on their web site: On 29 January 2016, BBB communications director Katherine Hutt clarified the bureau's stance on Be Like Bill, due to the multiple news reports conflating their earlier clickbait warnings with that particular meme and generator: Finally, outlets devoted to more detailed reporting on online security (such as Sophos' Naked Security blog) haven't issued any warnings about Be Like Bill or the popular comic generator. No widespread reports of adverse outcomes have substantiated news affiliate speculation, and the bulk of Be Like Bill-themed reports focused on the general ability for malware to spread through apps, not any reports definitively (or anecdotally) related to that meme specifically. While users might tire of seeing Bill across their feeds, he doesn't pose a threat to anything more than annoyance-free browsing.
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