Instagram Hoax Rocks (And Truly Annoys) Internet, Many Celebrities

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA)  -- An internet hoax went viral Wednesday faster than you can say hoax went viral.

An Instagram message claimed that "everything you have ever posted becomes public from today." And the hoax asked people to post a message that they understood the terms of the message. It also gave them the option of not allowing Instagram access to use "all your photos."

Not the case, not so fast.

Instagram didn't change their privacy policy.

Apparently, many fell for the hoax including some big celebrities with huge followings.

The hoax caused panic among users and many celebrities thinking they were protecting their privacy but really the joke was on them...

Social media and tech expert Jessica Naziri told CBS2/KCAL9's Brittney Hopper it's scary how many people believed the hoax...

"As soon as you sign up for a social network you should know that all that information will be the networks. And yes they say we don't sell your data but let's say there is a court case and there is a suit against you, they do by law have to give up that information," Naziri says.

The post really snowballed when many celebrities who have huge followings started to post it.., Celebs like Julia Roberts, Usher and Pink who has 6.7 million followers. Even the man in charge of American nuclear weapons, former Texas governor Rick Perry, fell for the hoax...

"This is a really big wake up call to celebrities and other people who are posting on social media consistently. We look to them as experts and if they set the precedent and they're wrong, people will be so confused and continue to do these things and think they're safe but in reality they're not and it gets them into more trouble," Naziri says.

Instagram reiterated Wednesday that there's no truth to the post.