Will Facebook Charge A Fee? No!

FACEBOOK JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING… YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO...IT IS OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON IF NOT YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IF YOU DO NOT PAY...

Sounds familiar? Hmm.. when I first received it, I was quite skeptical, as charging fees seems to move away from their business strategy. A huge number of users will definitely just shut down their account, hence leading to Facebook's plunging popularity and dwindling advertising revenue. 

And when exactly is "midnight tonight"? 1 January 2009? 2010? 2011? or even 2012?

Isn't Facebook responsible for disseminating information? Why put the onus on the users?  and free account for those who share the info?then why charge in the first place? 

Questions questions questions.. let's just google search for the answer. Here's what I found from the Facebook Blog: 

We will never use any of the following methods to tell you information, or ask for you to take an action: 

• Your Wall
• An inbox message from a friend - in other words, chain letters
• Messages spread through Applications - If an app is telling you that Facebook is about to shut down, report it.

We'd like to clarify a few things for the record:

• We are not shutting down accounts that are not "active" enough
• We are not going to start charging you to use Facebook.
• We will never ask you to send us your password or login information.
• We will never put the responsibility on YOU to send information to your friends. If we have information we need to share, it;s our job to get the word out.
• When we do communicate to you about the site (with the exception of posts made on this blog) it will always be from a collective Facebook. You won't hear from me, personally, or from Mark, or from Dustin, or from any of the Facebook bloggers you've seen here.

Apparently this hoax has been ongoing since 2007, well it's now 2011 and Facebook is still not charging. Need more proof? See it for yourself here