Are the NSA spying on us via BitStrips?
An absurd message is circulating that claims popular Facebook app BitStrips is actually a ploy from the NSA to spy on Facebook users.
The popular BitStrips application on Facebook, that allows users to “cartoonise” themselves in various different scenes, has enjoyed success not afforded to many other Facebook apps, with millions of users across Facebook using the application.
And with viral success often comes nonsense, and BitStrips is no different. A message is running rampant on Facebook that the application is actually run by the National Seurity Agency. The message claims the leak derived from famous whistleblower Edward Snowden, and claims the NSA “knew their spying would someday be made public” thus created the app to spy on people a “legal way”.
According to a statement from Snowden the NSA knew that someday their spying would be made public. They knew that people would respond by demanding more privacy settings. So in response the NSA set up a team to develop apps that will by pass privacy settings, in a legal way.
In a statement from Snowden it said “To use these apps you have to agree to the Terms of Service, and agree to give the app access to your Facebook profile. So these developers were tasked to develop apps that would go viral. Games were looked at, but there are so many games out there already. Then someone said cartoons and comics. Facebook is a visual platform, so pictures do well.”
The message actually derives from a satirical website called callthecops.net and is obviously not meant to be taken seriously. Yet this hasn’t stopped thousands of panicked Facebook users circulating either the link or a screenshot of the webpage to their friends, in another example highlighting just how susceptible some Facebook users can be, and how users are willing to take nonsense at face value and accept it as truth, based on no evidence whatsoever.
No, the NSA are not spying on you through BitStrips.