Log onto Facebook and it is likely you will come face-to-face with, at least, one status update regarding Facebook charging fees for their services. The status, often in caps lock, states that if you copy and paste the status you will be one of the lucky few not charged for Facebook. This is not a new issue, in fact, there are rumors regarding Facebook charging membership fees dating back to when Facebook made it big and allowed users outside of colleges to join.
In 2009 a malicious hoaxter created a group that, upon joining, installed malicious software into the computers of its members. The links within the group and the group itself created a malware hailstorm for users who fell victim to the prank. While the 2009 prank caused damage to computers around the world the 2011 prank seems to be a bit more innocuous. Simply put someone wants to get this message out there and create a bit of panic. The prank persists on the notion that adding a status update regarding it will spare you from the new membership fees. This hoax is completely false, but people continue spreading the news.
If one was to think about it logically there is no way that Facebook would ever start charging for its services. As a journalism student many years ago it was made known quickly that subscriptions to newspapers and magazines were not keeping the companies afloat. The only thing membership, or subscription, numbers can do is create leverage for the sales force of the company in question. An advertising manager uses subscription numbers to sell advertising space at a premium. The more subscriptions, or members, the medium has the more they can charge for advertising. This is how Facebook and other web entities make their money.
Facebook has one of the largest audiences on the web, if not the largest. That type of exposure for a company is worth a ton of money, and they willing pay for advertising space on Facebook because of the sheer number of users logged in. Ii Facebook was to start charging for memberships they would lose a huge portion of their user base. Those users would head over to a free competitor, like Google +, and leave Facebook to rot in internet hell. Advertising space would then command a lower premium and eventually it would topple Facebook.
In short, Facebook, and other social media sites need to be free because their greatest asset is not their service, necessarily, but the amount of unique hits they can generate. So, that is how social media sites make their money, and more important why all the “Facebook will be charging by X date” are completely and utterly false. Facebook will never charge for its services, they frankly cannot afford to.