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The US Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, became Tuesday the latest victim of an Instagram hoax dating back several years.
Perry, who is responsible for overseeing all of the US nuclear arsenal, has republished a message falsely claiming that a new Instagram privacy policy would make public all user posts, including deleted posts, and authorize the company to "use your photos".
The message, which was already targeting Facebook users as early as 2012 and was aired discredited by Snopes, also falsely claimed that users could choose not to participate in the new strategy by republishing the message.
"With this statement, I point out to Instagram that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute or otherwise take any action against me based on this profile and / or its content," the message said. "Instagram does not have my permission to share photos or messages."
Perry, a former competitor of "Dancing With the Stars," posted the message on his personal Instagram account as well as on Twitter. Other celebrities, like actresses Julia Roberts, Julianne Moore and Debra Messing and pop singer Usher, fell for the hoax as well as. But Perry was outright ridiculed on social media because of his position as supervisor of all US nuclear and nuclear weapons.
"How on earth are you heading the energy department when you fall in love with the social network email chain," wrote one speaker.
"I would like to introduce you to a Nigerian prince," commented another speaker.
A few hours after publication, Perry commented, "OMG … seriously, you mean it's wrong!"
"I'll be cursed !!" he added. "The first time I saw something fake on the internet !!"
Perry finally deleted the post nearly 12 hours later and replaced it with a satirical version allowing Instagram to use his pictures of Dachshunds and his "selfies behind the scenes with Vanilla Ice".
"This message that I posted on my phone should be considered a legally binding document, in perpetuity throughout the universe," the message said.
Perry is one of the few officials in Trump's administration to hold office since the beginning of his presidency. the New York Times reported in 2017 that Perry was totally unaware that the Energy Department was responsible for overseeing the country's nuclear arsenal and that he had not learned that it would be the responsible a few days after accepting the position. Perry, who studied breeding at Texas A & M University, replaced Ernest Moniz, former chair of the MIT physics department, who led the linear accelerator at MIT's Nuclear Science Laboratory. Predecessor of Moniz, Steven Chu, won a Nobel Prize in physics.
Perry actually ran for president in 2012 on a platform of eliminating the Department of Energy, although he forgot his name by listing all the departments he was going to remove.
"Third, I can not," Perry said at a Republican primary debate in 2011. "Sorry, Oops."
Perry had a turnaround after being instructed to run the agency.
"The statements I made more than five years ago about the abolition of the Ministry of Energy do not reflect my current thinking," he said. said in the Senate in 2017. "In fact, after being informed of many essential functions of the Ministry of Energy, I regret to have recommended it."
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