A Facebook post (below) is spreading across social media imploring Facebook users to like and share it.
The page claims the boy in the photo was told by a school friend that no one would say happy birthday to him “because of his desease“[sic] Some versions of the photo identify the boy as “Samuel”.
The post going viral – We’ve blurred the photo to protect the boys identity.
His school friend told him that no one would say happy birthday to him because of his desease 🙁
He is 11 years today 😍🎉🎈🎊🎁
Please do not scroll without typing “Happy Birthday.”
Happy birthday… 🎉🎁🎈🎊🎂
He is called Samuel…
His classmates told him that no one would say happy birthday to him because of his disease.😭😭😭
Today he is 11 years old.👏😇🎂
Let’s all wish him happy birthday to shame his classmates.
Please dont scroll down without typing…
“Happy Birthday” for this boy also share to reach others pls👏👏👏
This is the type of unscrupulous like-farming that we often see on social networks such as Facebook. The people who upload these types of photos are interesting in only one thing – exploiting Facebook users into interacting with photos they upload. This is because they want followers for their pages, and the easiest way to obtain followers is to post “viral” content that receives plenty of interaction such as likes and shares.
And photos that use these fabricated sob stories like we see here often prove to be the most successful. The reality is that the stories attached to these posts (such as the “no one would wish him a happy birthday” assertion) are fake and only used to emotionally exploit the reader.
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The boy in the photo will certainly be unaware his photo is spreading in this way. The person who uploaded the photo is exploiting the boy and Facebook users, just so they can boost their profile and gain new followers. The boy’s real identity is Lucas Costa, and this photo spreading across Facebook was stolen from his Pictarm account.
Those who engage in Facebook like-farming will often steal photos of sick or disabled children online, with the intent of using those photos to lure Facebook users into liking and sharing them. It’s a popular modus operandi for like-farmers. We discuss it in more detail here.
The best advice with these kinds of posts is to simply ignore them. Avoid engaging with them, including commenting, sharing or liking.
