Facebook Becoming a Pay-Only Website?

According to a group on Facebook, members of the site will eventually have to pay to use the famous social networking site. To be honest, I thought I was having some sort of horrible nightmare when I read this. It couldn't be true. Facebook is a site for everyone, and nobody in their right mind would pay to use a site where Big Brother monitors each member's activities and then posts advertisements based on every individual's specific interests.

According to their group description, "This is a petition to stop Facebook from charging $14.99 a month starting from July 2010. Because of Facebook's huge popularity Mark Zuckerberg is getting a lot of offers from people wanting to buy Facebook. People who WILL turn it into a paysite."

Wow, this seems pretty legit. Despite the fact that there's no actual proof that it's true, and we only have the James Sullivan's (the creator of the group) word for it. A few seconds of further investigation show that there's a catch that goes with this group. The last paragraph of the description states the following, "Earn a free Apple iPad by working as a tester. They send you a free iPad, and you use it for a week and then write a 300 word review. They let you keep an iPad as a thank you for a work."

It seems pretty awkward to put that as a closing paragraph, especially when the group is backing a supposedly important cause. Especially when the previous paragraph was just one sentence stating, "WE WILL NOT PAY TO USE FACEBOOK!!!!"

Seems very odd. What could be their motivation? Why should the iPad have anything to do with someone buying out Facebook?

Let's check out the group's official website:

Wow, what a shock! This website has absolutely nothing to do with rallying up support for a petition that would end what would be a potentially horrible move for the social networking site, and absolutely everything to do with Apple's revolutionary new product, the iPad.

It's almost as if someone made a group with a threatening title in an effort to get several people to join. Then, once they're all in, they'll be lured by the promise of a free Apple iPad.

One would think that Apple was behind this, but the website offering out the free iPad states that "Freebieape.com is not affiliated with Apple(R) All Apple(R) trademarks are the property of Apple(R) and Freebieape.com does not, in any way, claim to represent or own any of the Apple(R) trademarks or rights."

So, at first it seemed as if Facebook was behind this, and then it seemed like Apple was pulling all the strings, but in reality it was a strange website called "Freebieape.com." This proved to be a conspiracy within a conspiracy within a conspiracy. Which is arguably pretty cool, but I still don't quite think I understand the motive. Maybe all three companies are in on it?

According to an article from Telegraph.co.uk, a spokesman for Facebook said that "We have no plans to charge users for Facebook's basic services. Facebook is a free service for its 350 million users."

So, it looks like the whole thing was based on a lie. Who knew?

Either way, the group has more than 300,000 members. So it looks like everyone's safe.