Facebook denies report suggesting social network's imminent closure

by Steven Mostyn - Jan 11 2011, 11:15

Mark Zuckerberg and Co. have moved quickly to discredit a spook story published over the weekend suggesting social networking giant Facebook is on the verge of shuttering its online service.

The story in question, which several news agencies claim was posted by Weekly World News, revealed that users would “no longer be able to access their Facebook accounts” as of March 15.

The site also offered up a direct quote purportedly taken from Mark Zuckerberg himself, in which the billionaire Facebook founder actually confirmed the closure.

“Facebook has gotten out of control and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life,” Zuckerberg supposedly said. “I need to put an end to all the madness.”

However, popular opinion regarding Weekly World News points to a history of posting inaccurate prank stories designed to whip up whirlwinds of sensationalism and controversy.

For example, UK tabloid The Daily Mail points to headlines such as “Alien spaceships to attack Earth by 2011” as evidence of the site’s lack of journalistic respectability.

By way of direct response to mounting user concerns regarding Facebook’s upcoming demise, the social network offered up the following status notification:

“We didn’t get the memo about shutting down, so we’ll keep working away like always. We aren’t going anywhere; we’re just getting started.”

That notification was swiftly supported by Larry Yu, Facebook’s director of corporate communications, who told Mashable that “the answer is no” regarding the question of the network’s closure.

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