News feeds on Facebook are atwitter about the popular social networking site’s alleged impending demise on March 15, 2011.
Guess then, that April Fool’s Day would be coming two weeks early.
Rumors about the Great Logout had been “spreading like wildfire across Facebook this weekend," ignited on Saturday by an article published on the ‘Weekly World News’, a news-parody website outlandishly claiming to be the source of “The World’s Only Reliable News."
The false news article reported that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg had announced at a press conference: “Facebook has gotten out of control and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness."
Belying the rumors is a report posted by ‘Naked Security’, which had won in November 2010 the ‘Best IT Security Blog’ title at the IBM-sponsored Computer Weekly Blog Awards.
In addition, according to Snopes.com – “the definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation" – common Internet hoaxes like this one include rumors that a free web-based service would soon “begin mass deletion of accounts" or “start charging for access."
Such stories would, of course, alarm Filipino Facebook users. The Philippines has a higher density of Facebook users than many Southeast Asian countries, considering that the country has the sixth largest population of Facebook users in the world and the world's fifth heaviest social network usage.
Graham Cluely of ‘Naked Security’ warns everyone: “Don't believe everything you read on the internet, and think twice before you pass a story on to your friends." He also urged everyone to “stay informed about the latest scams, hoaxes and malware attacks spreading fast across Facebook."
source: gmanews.tv/
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