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Unfounded warning posts and tips are plentiful on social media, and one particularly bogus hoax on Facebook account security doesn’t seem to want to go away. The rumor claims that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg not only invented the abbreviation BFF (for Best Friends Forever), but that typing the letters in a comment would let users know whether their accounts were secure or not. The post reads: Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, invented the word BFF. To make sure your account is safe on Facebook, type BFF in a comment. If it appears green, your account is protected. If it does not appear green, change your password immediately because it will be hacked. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook .) Yeah, no. There is no relationship between one's account security and what happens when one types in the word, BFF. Mark Zuckerberg also did not invent the abbreviation, it was around long before Facebook. (Cue your middle school BFF necklaces.) The hoax originated in response to the animated feature that Facebook introduced in 2017 . A list of words and abbreviations, such as xoxo, congratulations, and BFF, that when included in a status update or comment trigger animations such as color changes, balloons or hearts. We reached out to Facebook for a response to the claim but did not hear back before publication. The rumor appeared to pop up in the spring of 2018 – right around the time Zuckerberg appeared in Congressional hearings to answer questions on Facebook’s data privacy practices after more than 50 million users ’ private information was shared without their permission. And although this BFF claim has been labeled a hoax by several outlets , it re-surfaces on the social media website every so often. We rate it Pants on Fire!
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