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This rumour, which is rocketing around cyberspace causing fear and consternation among Facebook fans, claims that Facebook will shut down entirely on January 15, 2013 or in March or in May or Whenever. According to the rumors Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has decided to shut down the site because managing it is too stressful and because the site has "gotten out of control". However, the rumors have no basis in fact. Zuckerberg has certainly not announced any plans to shut down Facebook. The rumours are derived from a fictional story first published on the website"Weekly World News" on January 8th, 2011.
Weekly World News is the online version of a notorious tabloid newspaper of the same name long renowned for publishing utterly fanciful stories disguised as news articles. Virtually nothing published on the website is accurate. The "Facebook shutting down" story is apparently intended to be satirical. The site regularly features fake news articles about alien encounters along with fictional gossip stories targeting various celebrities. The original version of the hoax listed a supposed closure date of March 15, 2011. But with that date well and truly in the past, the hoax was "updated" and then proclaimed that the shut down would take place on March 15, 2012. After the March deadline had also passed, yet another version surfaced which claimed that the shutdown was to take place on July 15 2012. And the latest variant moves the closure date to Janaury 15, 2013. New versions, with new - and equally spurious - shutdown dates are likely to continue appearing in coming months. Thus, Facebookers can breathe a sigh of relief! Their much beloved network is NOT going to be shut down any time soon. Incidentally, this is not the only hoax that has claimed that Facebook users may soon lose their accounts. Another widespread message falsely claims that Facebook is becoming overpopulated and is therefore deleting the accounts of users who do not repost the message.
Weekly World News is the online version of a notorious tabloid newspaper of the same name long renowned for publishing utterly fanciful stories disguised as news articles. Virtually nothing published on the website is accurate. The "Facebook shutting down" story is apparently intended to be satirical. The site regularly features fake news articles about alien encounters along with fictional gossip stories targeting various celebrities. The original version of the hoax listed a supposed closure date of March 15, 2011. But with that date well and truly in the past, the hoax was "updated" and then proclaimed that the shut down would take place on March 15, 2012. After the March deadline had also passed, yet another version surfaced which claimed that the shutdown was to take place on July 15 2012. And the latest variant moves the closure date to Janaury 15, 2013. New versions, with new - and equally spurious - shutdown dates are likely to continue appearing in coming months. Thus, Facebookers can breathe a sigh of relief! Their much beloved network is NOT going to be shut down any time soon. Incidentally, this is not the only hoax that has claimed that Facebook users may soon lose their accounts. Another widespread message falsely claims that Facebook is becoming overpopulated and is therefore deleting the accounts of users who do not repost the message.
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