Many on social media were taken in by a completely false news that claimed that starting 1 November, all Facebook users will have to pay $2.99 per month.
The almost believable hoax was started by a satirical portal, National Report.
The report stated that the decision was announced at a press conference that beginning 1 November, the social media giant will start charging members $2.99 per month to use services that users currently enjoy for free.
"We thought long and hard about this decision, but at the end of the day, we had no choice but to add this monthly fee," the report quoted Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg as saying. "If we don't do something about our rising costs now, Facebook could face an unrecoverable financial burden and become obsolete."
Besides the fake quote by Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, the report carried a made-up CNN interview with Facebook spokesperson Paul Horner.
The report is nothing but false as in its disclaimer the site states " National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news," reported Epoch Times.
However on Twitter many were taken by the hoax.
Pete @Sunleil said: "For those of you who love FaceBook be prepared starting Nov1st, FB will no longer be free to use,all users will pay a Fee of $2.99 Per Month."
Meghan Osley @MeghanOsley So starting on November 1st, Facebook is charging people $2.99 a month. Guess that's an excuse to delete my account! #byefacebook
Another user Megan Thompson joked about the hoax and said @MeganThompson : "I would pay $2.99 a month for Facebook if they would forever stop suggesting my ex's new girlfriends as "people I may want to know".
Senior journalist Matthew Keys finally stated it all a clever hoax and said @MatthewKeysLive: "No, Facebook is not "charging" $2.99. The National Report is a satirical (also: unfunny)."
In short, it is all rumours - and Facebook, as it advertises on its homepage, is still "free and always will be" as it can never risk losing its critical mass of users by charging people for basic access to the tools that make its multi-billion dollar business work, states Adam Ostrow in a Mashable article.
