Heard a story that Facebook is going to end on March 15th? You should take it with a pinch of salt.
A story is spreading like wildfire across Facebook this weekend, claiming that the world's most popular social network is closing on March 15th.
The reason? CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims that "managing [Facebook] has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness."
There's only one problem with the story. It's not true. Facebook is not going to end on March 15th, and Mark Zuckerberg never said any such thing.
But that's not stopping many many Facebook users spreading the message
Many of the messages include a link to an apparent news story, where users can read more about the surprising announcement of Facebook's death:
I certainly wouldn't disagree that users would be wise to have their own backup of their photographs, rather than rely on Facebook - but it's nothing more than a scare to suggest to people that they have to do it before March 15th because Facebook is going to close down.
Most people would probably never believe such a load of old nonsense as the claim that Mark Zuckerberg is going to shut down Facebook, but it only takes a small proportion of people to think it might be possible to turn a joke of a news story into an internet hoax.
And although a hoax is nothing like as bad as a piece of malware worming its way between users and stealing information, it's still a nuisance, clogging up communications, increasing the overall level of spam and perhaps leading people to make decisions for the wrong reasons.
There's an important lesson here - don't believe everything you read on the internet, and think twice before you pass a story on to your friends.
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