The latest viral hoax sweeping across Facebook claims the site will limit the content you can see in your News Feed to 26 friends. This fake article claims Facebook will “choose the people” for you. Of course, this sounds silly on its face, but Facebook still went on the record this week to deny it.

“Friends don’t let friends copy and paste memes, and this one simply is not true,” a Facebook spokesperson told Fortune. “We rank News Feed based on how relevant each post might be to you, and while we’ve made some updates that could increase the number of posts you see from your friends, your News Feed isn’t limited to 25 of them.”

This scam was originally uncovered and debunked by Snopes, a popular online fact-checking organization. But it’s a little troubling that Facebook’s algorithms are so unknown to the public that it required an official investigation like this to get to the bottom of it. (It also says something about Facebook’s reputation that people would actually believe the company was controlling their privacy settings like this.)

No matter what, it’s always a good idea to approach Facebook content with a skeptical eye — especially viral posts. Too often, these are downright false, or even used as vehicles to spread malware.

Another version of this hoax circulating in October of 2019 is shown below:

Fixed my blocked posts. I wondered where everybody had been! This is good to know. It’s ridiculous to have xxx friends and only 25 are allowed to see my posts.
I ignored this post earlier because I didn’t think it worked. It WORKS!! I have a whole new news feed. I’m seeing posts from people I haven’t seen in years.
Here’s how to bypass the system FB now has in place that limits posts on your news feed. Their new algorithm chooses the same few people – about 25 – who will read your posts. Therefore, hold your finger down anywhere in this post and “copy” will pop up. Click “copy”. Then go to your page, start a new post, and put your finger anywhere in the blank field. “Paste” will pop up and click “paste”. This will bypass the system.
If you are reading this message, do me a favor and leave me a quick comment…a “hello,” a sticker, whatever you want, so you will appear in my newsfeed‼️It WORKS!! I don’t know how many friends I have. I just want to see all of your posts that I have been missing.

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