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Facebook has a status update tool which allows users to announce to the world what they're doing. It's similar to the status message on an IM account, or the answer to Twitter's "what are you doing?" question, but with one difference: The word "is" is automatically inserted between the user's name and the status message, grammar notwithstanding. AllFacebook reported and Epicenter noted that the "is" magically disappeared overnight, so users could go about writing statuses about how they "need to sleep" or "can't wait to go home for Thanksgiving" without worrying about proper verb usage. But this morning, the innocuous article has returned, raining strife and confusion down on the almost 100,000 members of the Remove the "is" from the Facebook status (Official Facebook Petition) group. So, what's the story? Is "is" or isn't "is" automatically added? According to Facebook PR, they "don't have anything new to report on the 'is' in the status message." We're stumped. What is going on?