A large number of Facebook users have been going nearly berserk after it was falsely reported that Facebook would shut down on March 15.
The said report was posted on Weekly World News. Some of the other reports posted on this site included talk about alien spaceship attacks in 2011, Michelle Obama being pregnant, and soon-to-be royal bride, Kate Middleton, being 36 years old. Nevertheless, a number of other blogs picked up this post and the hoax soon spread far out of control.
Users rushed to Facebook, forming groups to petition the site not to shut down and posted thousands of comments on the site discussing the likelihood of its closure.
The supposed reason for Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to shut down the most popular social networking site in the world was cited in a fictitious quote by Facebook founder, “Facebook has gotten out of control and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life.”
Facebook, on their part have denied any such decision. On their own Facebook Page they said, “We didn’t get the memo about shutting down, so we’ll keep working away like always. We aren’t going anywhere; we’re just getting started.”
In fact, when Mashable questioned Facebook about the rumour, Facebook’s director of corporate communications, Larry Yu said, “The answer is no, so please help us put an end to this silliness.” He added, “We didn’t get the memo about shutting down and there’s lots to do, so we’ll just keep cranking away like always.”
Anyone who thought about it just a little bit would have also realised how unlikely it was for a company, which is venture funded and has been as successful and grown as big Facebook, to suddenly decide to shutdown, especiall after receiving $450 million and $50 million in funding from Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky technologies respectively.
Facebook fanatics can now breathe easy. They would also be well advised to think rationally before believing everything that is reported on the Internet.
