diff --git a/build_tools/build_detect_platform b/build_tools/build_detect_platform
index c3fb8e3f1..59e2e4619 100755
--- a/build_tools/build_detect_platform
+++ b/build_tools/build_detect_platform
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ if test -z "$TARGET_OS"; then
     TARGET_OS=`uname -s`
 fi
 
-COMMON_FLAGS="$COMMON_FLAGS ${CFLAGS} -fPIC"
+COMMON_FLAGS="$COMMON_FLAGS ${CFLAGS}"
 CROSS_COMPILE=
 PLATFORM_CCFLAGS=
 PLATFORM_CXXFLAGS="$PLATFORM_CXXFLAGS ${CXXFLAGS}"
@@ -174,6 +174,12 @@ if [ "$CROSS_COMPILE" = "true" -o "$FBCODE_BUILD" = "true" ]; then
     # Also don't need any compilation tests if compiling on fbcode
     true
 else
+    # do fPIC on 64 bit in non-fbcode environment
+    case "$TARGET_OS" in
+        x86_64)
+            PLATFORM_CXXFLAGS="$PLATFORM_CXXFLAGS -fPIC"
+    esac
+
     # If -std=c++0x works, use <atomic>.  Otherwise use port_posix.h.
     $CXX $CFLAGS -std=c++0x -x c++ - -o /dev/null 2>/dev/null  <<EOF
       #include <atomic>