The US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry showed his age and social media naivety by reposting a hoax that supposedly stops Instagram from making its users' public posts… public.

The former governor of Texas, who’s currently responsible for America’s nuclear arsenal, shared the post with almost 25,000 Instagram followers on Wednesday, warning them about the alleged change in company policy.

Perry shared the post on both Instagram and Twitter (just to be safe) with the caption: “Feel free to repost!!,” along with the hashtag “no thanks Instagram.” The warning reminded users of the “deadline tomorrow!!!” and that anything they’ve posted to their profile “becomes public.”

“With this statement, I give notice to Instagram it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents,” the post read.

the guy who handles US nukes got took by an aol-era instagram chainmeme pic.twitter.com/9o4kTvBgNU — rat king (@MikeIsaac) August 21, 2019

Adding to the bizarre lack of social media prowess is the senator’s refusal to delete the post even hours after he was made aware of his embarrassing blunder. Instead, Perry posted a series of comments beneath the warning including: “OMG....seriously, you mean this is fake!!” and “I’ll be darned!! First time I’ve seen anything fake on the internet!!”

“How the hell are you in charge of the department of energy when you fall for the social media version of chain email,” questioned one Instagram user.

“OMG....seriously, why haven’t you deleted this post yet?,” asked another, while even more users pondered Perry’s ability to manage the nation’s nukes.

You are promoting a fake story. Do better. Or retire as Secretary of Energy. Our nuclear arsenal should be in steadier hands. — Apeirogonal apama - Amazon MC Prospect (@digitaldeath) August 21, 2019

Such hoaxes have been fooling internet users for years. A previous image, suspiciously similar to that shared by Perry, warned Facebook users of the same ‘policy change’ in 2012. Facebook eventually debunked the hoax at the time with a post in their help center.

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