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“I am cleaning up my Facebook friends” is not a virus – It is a viral Facebook Question

09
Jun
2011

Have you seen a post on your wall that asks “I am cleaning up my Facebook friends… let me know if you would like to stay…?”

cleaningupfriendslist

A lot of Facebook users are placing a disclaimer on their walls stating they didn’t make the posting and that it must be a virus. This is a false alarm. This is nothing more than a “Facebook Question” that has gone viral. If you look at the picture shown above, you can see that it started about 2 months ago and has received almost 600k votes and over 21k followers.

The reason it has gone viral is due to the “Ask Friends” button. Anytime someone clicks that button, the question is posed to everyone on the user’s friends list. If you see one of your friends freaking out about this and telling everyone to “change their password,” tell them to relax and that there has been no harm done.

Hoaxes like this have the tendency to really take off on Facebook. People have good intentions, but don’t always check out all of the facts. Before sounding alarm bells, take a few moments to verify the source and authenticity of the message being spread.

If you or your Facebook friends are falling for tricks like this, it’s time to get yourself informed of the latest threats. Be sure to join the Facecrookspage on Facebook to be kept informed of the latest security issues.  

  1. Lauren Clark June 14, 2011

    I wouldn’t call it entirely harmless except that I’ve had at least one person simply delete me as a friend because they thought the poll was legitimate. People are busy and don’t alwys have time to check out every little thing, so rather than answering the poll, this person just deleted me.

  2. priscilla barr October 18, 2011

    i don’t know how the Facebook question of cleaning out your friends list went viral on facebook, but can’t the Facebook secuity do anything about it. It makes people think you don’t want to be friends with them.

  3. Carl October 19, 2011

    If a person deleted you, that’s on them, not on the “question.”

  4. marilyn schaadt October 20, 2011

    I did not post this and cannot tell others that I did not. Facebook had no right to do this

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