Every few years,  stories circulate about Facebook beginning to charge its users to do something on the site. Normally, just as quickly as the rumors begin,  they are stomped out.  The latest rumor is no different.

This past weekend,  there was a copy and paste hoax going around alleging that Facebook was going to begin charging its users $5.99 to keep their statuses and even private messages private. The hoax stated that you had to copy and paste the letter that clearly spelled out that Facebook could NOT use your information. According to the hoax, you couldn’t share the post,  you had to copy and paste it. Ooohhh, scary.

Now, con-game 101. . . if someone is telling you exactly how to assert your rights via social media,  red flags ( and blue flags,  and yellow flags, and any other color flag) should immediately pop up. From past incidents, we should know that this is hackers trying to get into your stuff. This time was no different. Facebook has issued a public statement in response to the hoax, claiming that they will NEVER charge its users, and that Facebook will ALWAYS be free. (So I guess those Facebook ads they charge for are exempt from this policy?) Although this time it was a hoax,  the situation got me thinking.

What if someone actually got access to everyone’s Facebook pages and issued an extortion ultimatum similar to Ashley Madison? We know it goes down in the DM (according to Yo Gotti.) How many people would be safe?  How many homes would be destroyed?  How many careers would be derailed? What would be the impact of our social media accounts being exposed for the world to see? If someone were to do this, what could we do about it? In this very magazine,  we have expressed the need to be careful of what you put on social media. NOTHING IN THE CYBERWORLD IS PRIVATE. It all has the potential to be hacked and exposed. We need to treat these social media pages like the old school gangsters treated the telephone: nothing really important was ever uttered over the airwaves. This should be the rule here. If we don’t realize by now that a supposedly simple social site that has employed facial recognition software will inevitably be used for nefarious purposes (most likely by the government) we need to really wake up. For those who say,  so what?  I don’t have anything to hide.  Remember,  a rope is just a rope until it’s around your neck.

READ ABOUT HOW POLICE SET UP A FAKE FACEBOOK PAGE TO MAKE A DRUG BUST HERE.