An Ellesmere Port woman forgot to add ‘delete if not aloud’ to her Facebook post this week, meaning group admins were unable to delete the post by law.
‘Delete if not aloud’ is the social media equivalent of a legal disclaimer, and means that you’re giving any social media admins your permission to delete the post should it be in breach of any of their rules. Failure to add this disclaimer to your posts makes removal of the post illegal.
The woman, 22-year-old Becky Simmons, posted on Pride in the Port asking if anyone had seen her cat as he’d been missing for over nine minutes. By forgetting to add the disclaimer ‘delete if not aloud’ her post has had to remain, even though her cat being missing for nine minutes was universally acknowledged as a mind-numbingly stupid thing to post.
One of the admins of the group commented:
Despite her post being monumentally stupid, there’s literally nothing we can do. She didn’t put ‘delete if not aloud’ so our hands are tied.
Becky was incredibly embarrassed by the whole affair – not for posting about her cat being missing, but for forgetting to add ‘delete if not aloud’ to her post.
She explained:
OMG wot am I like? I always ad delete if not aloud, cos you never no if its aloud do u?
Her husband, James Simmons, commented:
I want a divorce.
A spokesperson for Facebook told the Bugle:
Everyone posting on Facebook must add ‘delete if not aloud’ to posts or your posts will remain forever. They can never, ever be deleted unless you put that disclaimer at the start.
