A rumour is spreading virally across Facebook that claims the social network is to begin a charging “this summer” and you need to copy and paste a message to your wall to avoid the charge.
The rumour claims that your Facebook icon will turn blue which means Facebook will be free and you can avoid the charge. A version of the rumour can be seen below –
It’s official Signed at 10:33. It’s even passed on TV. Facebook will start charging this summer. If you copy this to your wall your icon will turn blue and your Facebook will be free for you. Please pass this message, if not your icon will be deleted.
P.S. this is serious, the icon will turn blue
(Copy and Paste to your wall)
The rumour is complete nonsense, and it is actually a near identical hoax to a number of previous rumours that have spread across Facebook for a number of years now. In fact an identical version of the rumour quoting 12.20 instead of 10.33 went viral earlier in 2016.
The claim that a particular website is going to introduce an imminent charge for its service unless you copy or forward some arbitrary text to your profile actually dates back to the mid-1990s, back to the days of MSN/AOL messengers.
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Even the vague claim that your “icon will turn blue” has been previously attached to previous versions quoting MSN Messenger as the service apparently introducing a charge.
Similar versions of this hoax have also spread targeting Yahoo, WhatsApp and Instagram.
These rumours are complete nonsense. Facebook are not introducing a charge, since there business model involves the primary service being offered for free. We explain how their business model works in more detail here.
The claim that to avoid a charge you need to copy and paste an arbitrary message is simply absurd and makes no sense whatsoever.
It is certainly about time we put these nonsense rumours to rest for good. While many social networking users undoubtedly spread them “just in case” they’re true, passing on this type of misinformation across the Internet is actually counter-productive and devalues the ability social networking websites have in terms of being able to share useful, productive content.
You can also watch us debunk this video via our YouTube channel here or watch below.