Rick Perry, the US secretary of energy and man who oversees the country's nuclear arsenal, has been taken in by a rudimentary Instagram trick.

The politician shared a fake piece of advice that suggests that Instagram users must post a message onto their account or they will be allowing anyone to use the pictures that are found there.

The hoax has been repeatedly debunked and when scrutinised appears to be netirely fake. As well as including a host of legally dubious claims, the text that Mr Perry shared had clearly been edited to make it relevant to Instagram.

But the politician, who serves in Donald Trump's cabinet and is responsible for the US's energy, shared the post.

"Feel free to repost!!" he wrote alongside the picture, along with the hashtag "no thanks Instagram".

The message was then shared over to Rick Perry's personal Twitter feed.

The wording seen in Mr Perry's Instagram post has been re-shared by a vast number of celebrities, all of whom have apparently been tricked by the ostensibly official and legal nature of the language.

But none of the claims inside the post are true. Instagram is already able to "use your photos" – that is what the site is used for – and there is nothing to indicate that sharing a post objecting to the terms and conditions of the site would be enough to opt out of them anyway.