Story:
Facebook will start charging a monthly fee.
Other Versions
1. Facebook to begin Charging Users $2.99/mo starting November 1st.
2. Facebook just released their price grid for membership. $9.99 per month for gold member services, $6.99 per month for silver member services, $3.99 per month for bronze member services, free if you copy and paste this message before midnight tonight.
When you sign on tomorrow morning you will be prompted for payment. it is official it was even on the news. Facebook will start charging due to the new profile changes. if you copy this on your wall your icon will turn blue and Facebook will be free for you. Please pass this message on…if not your account will be deleted if you do not pay!
Analysis:
These messages shared on Facebook and other social networking websites state that Facebook is going to charge its users a monthly fee. Not to worry, Facebook isn’t charging anyone.
These claims that Facebook will start charging its users a monthly fee have been circulating online in various versions since 2009. Initially, these stories used to come with fake Facebook pages and other external links that mislead and scam unsuspecting visitors.
In Jan. 2013, an article published in website WeeklyWorldNews.com said Facebook is planning a subscription-based service with monthly fees starting at $0.99 for a basic “friendship”, which increases with the Facebook activity of the user. As mentioned in the website’s terms of use, Weekly World News publishes some fictitious and satirical articles like Obama signed an executive order to give himself a pay rise.
The latest version of this hoax originates from an article published on fake, satirical news website NationalReport.net. The article published on 21 Sep. 2014 has a title saying ‘Facebook To Begin Charging Users $2.99/mo Starting November 1st,’ where the Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is quoted as saying, “If we don’t do something about our rising costs now, Facebook could face an unrecoverable financial burden and become obsolete”. In order to waive the monthly fee, the article also states that people who can’t afford the cost have to post a particular Facebook status message saying they are poor. Further, to make their story look authentic, the article has a video report of the NRTV (National Report TV).
So as of this writing, Facebook is not planning to charge any monthly fee for its users. In fact, to a related question in their help center section, Facebook says they will always keep the social networking site as a free service to everyone.
Hoax or Fact:
Hoax.
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