Facebook fees

Facebook fees

Facebook fees. Facebook membership fee rumors just a hoax. If you were on Facebook at all this weekend, someone you know probably posted as his or her status update a dire warning that the social networking giant was soon going to start charging its users for the privilege.

The warning also urged friends to cut and paste the news about membership fees to their status. Doing so, the message advised, would insure you continued using Facebook with free membership.

Turns out, it is a hoax. ABC News says it contacted Facebook about the rumor and the company issued the following statement: “A rumor on the internet caught our attention. We have no plans to charge for Facebook. It’s free and always will be.”

Facebook has no need to charge for membership, according to ZDNet. "Facebook makes a lot of money from the ads viewed and clicked by its 800 million active users," writes Emil Protalinski in his Friending Facebook column. "In fact, the social networking giant is expected to make $4.27 billion in revenue this year, 89 percent of which will come from advertising," he said.

The Wall Street Journal says the latest hoax does not appear to have a malicious intent. But during a 2009 rumor about Facebook membership fees, urban legend web site Snopes.com reported a protest page was a trap. "Some of those who did venture a click had their computers taken over by a series of highly objectionable images while malware simultaneously attempted to install itself onto their computers," the web site reported.

The status update that warns of the new user fees attributed the plan to changes Facebook recently made in the look of the site and how you use it. Those changes generated some harsh criticism online.

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