👋🟦 Deleting Facebook
Exiting a Toxic, Dying Platform Run By a Bootlicker
Prelude #
Facebook is a cancer of a company founded to nonconsenually rate the fuckability of Harvard undergrads (incredibly, that was Facebook’s least terrible moment. It actually got worse after that). - Cory Doctorow
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Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard
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Zuck: Just ask.
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Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS
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[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?
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Zuck: People just submitted it.
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Zuck: I don't know why.
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Zuck: They "trust me"
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Zuck: Dumb fucks.
Why I'm Deleting My Account #
The last straw:
Stephen "Mask-off White Supremacist" Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy, walks into Meta.
Continued, via Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman, David A. Fahrenthold, and Charlie Savage in the (separately awful) New York Times:
Mr. Miller told Mr. Zuckerberg that he had an opportunity to help reform America, but it would be on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s terms. He made clear that Mr. Trump would crack down on immigration and go to war against the diversity, equity and inclusion, or D.E.I., culture that had been embraced by Meta and much of corporate America in recent years.
Mr. Zuckerberg was amenable. He signaled to Mr. Miller and his colleagues, including other senior Trump advisers, that he would do nothing to obstruct the Trump agenda, according to three people with knowledge of the meeting, who asked for anonymity to discuss a private conversation. Mr. Zuckerberg said he would instead focus solely on building tech products.
What followed was Meta dismantling its DEI programs, and unilaterally changing its policies to "actually, hate speech is allowed now!"
Leaked internal docs from Meta, with the headline: Facebook now allows attacks on immigrants and trans people, and posts like “Mexican immigrants are trash!” and “I’m a proud racist.” via The Intercept, and here's a paywall bypass. (Go ahead and click "wayback" or "archive" to avoid any AI summary nonsense and read the actual text of the article)
Historians note that this sort of acquiescence is often the precursor to genocide and/or organized attacks against vulnerable groups.
Also, Myanmar: Facebook’s systems promoted violence against Rohingya; Meta owes reparations -Amnesty International so we've seen this before.
How I'm Deleting My Account #
- DeleteFacebook.com is a good place to start. FB doesn't make it easy.
- Requested a copy of all of my data, had to specify "full resolution photos"
- Was able to download "photos I'm tagged in" with this browser extention, though I can't make any promises about what the extension does or doesn't do with your data.
What I'll Miss #
- A dim sense of connection with old friends and family
- Facebook Marketplace, which, in my estimation, has fully eclipsed Craigslist
- A few special interest groups, some music-related, and others specific to my area
Alternatives to Meta Products #
I recommend apps within the Fediverse, which run on the Activity Pub protocol. Wanna switch to a different server? You can bring your connections and followers.
Once again, Cory Doctorow:
I have no plans to ever again put effort or energy into establishing myself on an unfederated service. From now on, I will put more weight on how easy it is to leave a service than on what I get from staying. A bad service that you can easily switch away from is incentivized to improve, and if the incentive fails, you can leave.
You can learn more at Fedi.Tips.
- Facebook ➡️ Friendica
- Twitter / X / Threads ➡️ Mastodon
- Instagram ➡️ Pixelfed
Another nice feature: a user of any of the above Fediverse apps can easily follow and interact with users of a different Fediverse app, e.g. Mastodon and Pixelfed users can follow each other.
P.S. Bluesky ain't it: it's centralized, and there's nothing stopping them from enshittifying the service, and then you're stuck looking for somewhere else to hang out online, and starting from scratch.