Doppelganger Week May Violate Facebook’s Terms of Service

This news might come as a buzzkill for some Facebook users: Facebook’s unofficial viral celebration, Doppelganger Week, during which Facebook users change their profile picture to a photo of their celebrity lookalike, could violate the social site’s Terms of Service, notably:

You will not post content or take any action on Facebook that infringes or violates someone else’s rights or otherwise violates the law.

Not so fun for Facebookers eager to boast their resemblance to Brad Pitt or Big Bird this week, but good news for the photogs and content creators the ToS and copyright law protect. However, Facebook’s spokesperson told CNET that user-posted content is only kept in check by copyright holders, who haven’t made any removal requests yet:

“Users are responsible for the content they post, but as always, Facebook will respond to requests for removal that it receives from copyright holders,” spokeswoman Brandee Barker said in an e-mail to CNET. “In this case, we have received no such requests.”


Image Credit: Facebook by Gauldo

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