Top Five Facebook Myths Published: 8th of Mar 2011
What are the top five myths and rumours surrounding the popular social networking site Facebook?
Since this morning I’ve been seeing more and more repostings of a Facebook app in my newsfeed claiming that the site is going to start deleting accounts that haven’t been verified.
Exactly what ‘verification’ entails I am still unsure of, yet come March 15 when my account is scheduled for deletion (according to the verification notice) I’m willing to bet I’ll still be there, ‘liking’ away.
These spam messages either get spread by people who feel that they’re doing the rest of Facebook a service by making the messages go viral, or they’re spread through hacking and users are unwittingly displaying and spreading messages to all of their friends.
And while getting rid of the messages from my newsfeed is as easy as clicking the little ‘x’ that appears and selecting ‘Hide all by (app name)’, the virality of this particular warning message got me thinking about the myths and rumours that have dogged Facebook from right at the very beginning, continuing to this day.
According to a website called Allfacebook.com these are the top five myths and rumours to ever circulate about the popular social networking site:
1. Facebook is going to begin charging its users a membership fee.
For years now this rumour has been making the rounds but the fact is (and Facebook now advertises this fact on its sign up/log in screen) that Facebook will always be free for its users.
2. Your information gets sold to advertisers.
According to Allfacebook many people believe that for Facebook to be profitable it would need to sell its users’ data to advertisers. This is not the case and Facebook actually does very nicely on the amount it rakes in annually on advertisements with the targeted advert system it has. In addition to this Allfacebook says should Facebook sell its users’ data it would lose trust between itself and the user.
3. Facebook is launching a product specifically for emails
This is another rumour about the site that, while lesser known than the previous ones, was still widespread across the internet. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has denied any claims of the site launching an email product in the near future.
4. Your data is exposed through the use of social plugins
Social plugins are what lets you see what your friends have liked, commented on or shared across the web and are designed to make it easy for Facebook users to access and share content with a single username and password. The more paranoid among us have suggested that these social plugins allow site owners a glimpse at our personal data, which is not the case at all. Social plugins are there for the sole purpose of enticing more users to interact.
5. Facebook is launching a music company.
Not that hard to imagine, but according to Allfacebook it’s a rumour with no substance. Facebook did have a brief foray into the music industry with its iLike application, but that’s been about it for the site with over 500 million users.
I’m sure there are many more rumours and myths going around about Facebook but it’s always important to remember that if Facebook was doing something as serious as deleting accounts, there would most definitely be a formal notice about it, not simply a post that is spread around to the lucky few.
