Facebook shutdown rumor spreading like crazy, company denies it

Credit: AeonScope

A humor media company, Weekly World News (whose every article has an all-caps title) reported two days ago that Facebook is closing down on March 15th. The rumor spread like crazy and there was a huge backlash with hate comments, blog posts and requests to keep the largest social network in the world running. I mean, just see the comments on the Weekly World News article alone!

Now here's the surprising part: I had no idea this was happening. Facebook had to announce that they will keep running on their Facebook Page as well as their Twitter feed. And I had no idea what they were talking about until I investigated.

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Here's the moral of the story: DO NOT believe everything you read on the Internet. If I were to read something like this, I'd search online for more details.

Actually, I'd not fall for this anyway. And you wouldn't if you're smart. Weekly World News looks like a scam anyway. Just look at their other news for instance (pictured to the right). Also, if you look at their About page, you'll laugh like crazy. Here's an excerpt:

Don’t believe everything you read. Unless you read it here at www.weeklyworldnews.com Since 1979, we have protected civilians from Alien slime. If you care about the future of our world, this is the only place on earth you can learn about:

•  UFO activity
• classified government cover-ups
• Bigfoot movements
• Secret science experiments paid for by pharmaceutical companies
• Cryptic findings

And there were people who fell for this. I hope you didn't. If you did, remember: the next time you see something like this, search online first.

I am not the only one reporting on this rumor, actually. Here's another site.

Now that you're here, connect to this blog on social networks, or at least have a look around.

Facebook shutdown rumor spreading like crazy, company denies it