Facebook Charging $1.00 for Messages to Non-Friends

A look inside what some people are calling Facebook’s new SPAM filter.

Over the holidays, I heard mumblings about Facebook’s intent to start charging users (not Business Pages) a $1.00 fee for each message sent to a non-friend. In truth, I made a mental note but didn’t pay all that much attention to it. The announcement resembled similar spammy, conspiracy theory rumors about Facebook not being free anymore and other such rantings. Then, I didn’t hear much more about it…until today when i tried to test this. I decided to look into it a little bit further and here is what I discovered:

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Facebook is in fact rolling out a new program that will charge people $1.00 to send a message to someone who is not their Facebook Friend and who they have zero mutual connections to. This applies to Facebook Profiles only. Facebook Pages will still only be able to return messages that have been initiated by users. The knee jerk reaction coming from most Facebook Users seems to be a bit negative, seeming to feed into fears that someday, free Facebook will be no longer.

I think that Business Insider Contributor Nicholas Carlson put it best: “Facebook is testing a new kind of SPAM filter that’s so crazy it might just work.” In his article, Carlson explores the idea that Facebook is using this fee as a SPAM filter. If you want your message to reach a stranger’s inbox, it’ll cost you. Otherwise, it’s going straight into the “Other” messages file.

Personally, I have no major issue with this. At the end of the day, Facebook is a business but I don’t imagine that this will become a huge revenue generator for them. It forces users to think twice about reaching out to perfect strangers and forces them to weigh the importance of their message against the value of a dollar. If the message is important, the dollar will be insignificant. If the person is someone that you truly do know and/or have a desire to be connected to, you will send them a (free) Friend Request. And if the communication isn’t worth a buck, that person’s inbox will at least be one message-less cluttered.

This new program also reinforces the boundaries that Facebook has set within its Pages product. Two-way communication with between a Page and a Profile can only exist once the conversation has been opened by the individual; never the other way around. With exception to Posts made by a page that is displayed on the Timeline and in the News Feed of those who Like the Page, Businesses are not able to directly contact individuals. This will help filter out some of the noise generated by people who use Profiles for their business presence when they shouldn’t and for people who abuse the platform.

Have you been prompted to pay a fee to send a message? Do you have questions or opinions you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them in the comments below!