Top 10 Myths, Lies And Conspiracy Theories About Facebook

[beer]

Facebook has broken down many of the social barriers that once existed for people. Cool people you met only once, cute coworkers you're too shy to speak with in person, and long lost loves could now be "friended" using the social medial platform, when before communication would not have been possible.

But is there a dark side to the social media leader?

10. BROKEN LINK

In a study of UK divorce proceedings, 20 percent of suits filed mentioned Facebook as a contributing factor to marital unhappiness. Couples the world-over began to flock away from the site now painted as an avenue to infidelity. But what media channels failed to provide was that unhappy marriages just happened to be more prone to spending time apart, and therefore, on Facebook. In the frenzy that ensued, however, this voice of reason was drowned out. To this day, people are still married to the myth that Facebook itself causes divorces.

9. DUPLICATE IDEAS

The Winklevoss Twins, Harvard classmates of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sued their former collaborator for allegedly lifting their idea for a social networking site. In 2007, a judge called the case against Zuckerberg "tissue thin." Eventually, Facebook decided to settle with the trio, although Zuckerberg has always insisted the idea for the site was entirely his.

8. EVENT INVITATION: GLOBAL REVOLUTION

In another instance of confusing correlation with causality, many people think that Facebook and other social media websites conspired to birth the political uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. After all, Facebook offers of a forum for acute sociability and democratic processes which have given the youth of those countries a taste for democracy. The Occupy Movement in the U.S. holds a similar philosophy. Except the part where they fight tanks.

But while Facebook certainly aided the protests, it did not, in fact, trigger them. Apparently, centuries of corruption, service cuts, lack of human rights, and oppression were the real causes.

7. FREAKS AND GEEKS

Back in 2010, a trend to swap your profile pic with that of a cartoon character spread like wildfire. But then a rumor spread that pedophiles had organized the campaign in an effort to locate the profiles of unsuspecting children. Ostensibly, their plan was to assess the age of the user based on the era of the cartoon character he or she posted; if someone posted a picture of He-Man, he was probably not currently in the 2nd grade. If she posted a picture of Dora the Explorer, then she might be a kid ripe for picking.

Of course, the nonsensical rumor turned out to be untrue. Trying to unmask the age of a young Facebook user through the clever use of cartoons is like trying to start a new country through the clever use of flags.

6. BIG BROTHERLY LOVE

With all the paranoia surrounding Facebook, it should come as no surprise that the social media champ is rumored (on the internet, of course) to have been developed by the CIA. During a round of venture capital funding, Facebook received millions of dollars from the firm Accel Partners. The firm's manager, James Breyer, also served on the board of the National Venture Capital Association, through which he knows Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel.

In-Q-Tel was started by the CIA.

While that does not prove direct association, it is eerie to also find out that one of In-Q-Tel's board members oversaw the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense. It was later revealed by journalists that DARPA had a mission "to gather as much information as possible about everyone… including internet activity, credit card purchase histories, airline ticket purchases, car rentals, medical records, educational transcripts, driver's licenses, utility bills, tax returns, and any other available data." The office was disbanded after that revelation, but the theory is that it reemerged with Facebook as its new mask.

5. DUMPING BODIES

A hoax which ran in multiple guises has warned users that Facebook was dumping people's profiles due to lack of space as if the digital world were a crammed Manhattan apartment. The hoax went on to explain that Facebook servers were running slowly and, in a ploy to free up space, Zuckerberg decided it was time to give loafers the boot.

Frantic users scurried to re-post the message: "If you're active, send this message to 15 other user (copy + paste) or all of your friends so that we see that you're an active one. We delete the members after two weeks whose not send this message to their friends - Mark Zuckerbeg. [sic]" Thousands fell for the ruse that this grammatically-challenged statement came from a Harvard-educated technology mogul.

4. A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME… SHOULD BE DELETED

As Facebook rapidly expands beyond its dorm room origins, it is faced with a new challenge: spam. The digital herpes has started to give the social site many problems, as mischief-makers have created countless fake profiles, some of which release viruses. In response, Facebook has now an established a constantly updated "blacklist" of names users cannot use in an effort to end this scourge. Included on the list are fictional characters like Batman, and "trending" names like Kardashian...

...But it has also run into another hiccup lately. Apparently, in an effort to minimize sham accounts, Facebook has been suspending and deleting the accounts of actual people that happen to have exotic or strange names. In an effort to support its "real name only" policy, it has even Salman Rushdie's account because he refused to go by his actual first name, Ahmed.

3. ZUCKERBERG V. ZUCKERBERG

"Facebook deleted its own founder!" Another myth circulated that the conglomerate was in such a state of disarray and disrepair that it couldn't even keep its own founder in its extensive database, but it turns out the real victim was named Mark S. Zuckerberg. The account of the less-famous Zuckerberg, who is a bankruptcy lawyer, was deleted after folks at the social media agency mistakenly thought his account was a phony.

2. BOOBS

The social media website has censored images from private accounts, deleted profiles, and has even gone as far as to remove groups associated with breastfeeding. Angry mothers have taken on a campaign against Facebook for its zero-tolerance stance on what the site calls "indecency." The mothers believe the social media platform has taken on an unfair crusade against women, and that if all exposed breasts should be censored so should the pictures of topless men posing on Facebook. Somewhere, the juiceheads of America just cringed a little.

1. LEAKAGE

In a world of constant status updates, check-ins, and live streams, it's no surprise that society is more conscious of privacy than ever before. Strange, considering people continually breach their own contract of secrecy by posting their lives online. Even so, Facebook was berated for having published users' phone numbers on their profiles for all to see.

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[Nemesis]

I agree with the last one the most. why complain about privacy settings when people post things like "going to my favorite gym [insert name here] at 5:30.

[Shadowx]

Well, i agree most of the theories. Never know what hit them.

[grouchysmurf]

I do not participate in Facebook.

I simply think it requires to much personal info,

and abuse is so widespread that it appears to be "normal".

Also the amount of ad servers is unbelievable.

Of course, this is just my opinion.