A message is spreading across Facebook that claims the social networking site is introducing a £5.99 entry price whereby Facebook users will need to pay this fee in order to keep their statuses “private”. According to the message, users can bypass the charge if they copy and paste the same message across Facebook.
This is a simple variation of an almost identical version of the same rumour that circulated in 2015.
In fact it reads almost verbatim, with the exception being that last time the rumour spread, it mentioned a “subscription gold” status, which this version (below) has omitted.
Now it’s official! It has been published in the media. Facebook has just released the entry price: £5.99 to keep the subscription of your status to be set to “private”. If you paste this message on your page, it will be offered free (I said paste not share) if not tomorrow, all your posts can become public. Even the messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed. After all, it does not cost anything for a simple copy and paste😋 not risking anything.”
The rumour first appeared in 2013, written in French. It gained popularity in 2015 after being translated to English and has made another resurgence in 2016 with this ever-so-slightly-modified variant.
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As we said before, there are no monetary costs to using the bulk of the Facebook website, and this isn’t going to change. Facebook are not planning on making your status/photos public if you don’t pay a charge. Doing so would not make any sense. The privacy of the information you upload to the social networking website is dictated by the privacy settings you have on your Facebook account, and has nothing to do with whether or not you pay an arbitrary charge or copy and paste an arbitrary message
As we have said a number of different times on this site, Facebook are not charging. They are not making your statuses public unless you pay a charge. These rumours seem to enjoy success every time someone changes one small detail and then publishes them back into the wild. Please stop falling for this nonsense!
Read our article on 12 reasons not to spread a Facebook rumour here.