BFF feature of Facebook and the truth behind it

Facebook has been facing a lot of heat recently. Its alliance with the data mining firm Cambridge analytica has brought in a lot of criticism for world's largest social media platform. Both Google and Facebook have attracted the cybersecurity agencies of the world regarding the issue of data safety and fake news. Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on record and said that he will work to make Facebook cleaner.

The two internet giants have drawn a lot of criticism for the propagation of fake news that often leads to misinformation. Google and Facebook have already committed to putting efforts into making the online space more informative and less misleading.

In order to address the issue of fake news, Facebook has laid down some tips to help its users to distinguish between fake and original news. But it still has a long road ahead in order to combat this issue. We have noticed a new fake news doing the rounds of Facebook regarding the account safety.

Far from making the facebook free of fake news. Facebook itself seems to have fallen prey to one of the fake news. A Facebook post from the page called 'Ravish Kumar Unofficial' is doing rounds and asking people to type 'BFF' in the comment box in order to check if their account is safe from hackers or not.

The Facebook post reads, “Mark Zuckerberg, 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 in green, change your password immediately because it may be hacked by someone.”

However, the post is completely false and doesn't help Facebook users in any way to secure their account from any sort of hackers. The truth is that this is the ‘text delight’ feature offered by Facebook which makes the text bold and green in colour. Moreover, the feature also creates an animation including two animated hands giving high-five when you press enter.

In an official statement given to Gadgets Now, Facebook has said, “A meme is currently making the rounds claiming that entering ‘BFF’ into the comments section will secure a person’s Facebook account. This is untrue. Entering ‘BFF’ will simply activate a Text Effect animation showing two hands coming together.”