I know, you're likely going to tell me "welcome to the party", about just how blatantly gross Facebook's actions towards users and their data have been for a long, long time. And you're right. I've largely been absent from FB, still have an account, since college, but the platform has never really resonated with me. Twitter, on the other hand, I check an unhealthy amount per day. Let's chalk up the bad actions of FB that has come out, just in the last 7 days:
- Facebook Project 'Atlas', paying teens to install their snooping VPN with enterprise certs.
- Facebook blocks Ad Transparency Tools
- Facebook Friendly Fraud, kids unwittingly spending money connected to their parents credit cards.
Now for most companies they would be in full PR mode. Interviews, opinion columns, talk shows, the spin machine out in force. For Facebook it seems more like just business as usual. The logic is most people using the service are unaware to the level that FB is targeting them to feed the monster advertisement and revenue machine, or they know and simply don't care. There have been waves over the past year to #deletefacebook, and that might raise awareness, it might just be noise in the thundering hose of content and ads.
Here's what I know. A lot of people like Instagram and What's App, I mean a lot. Anecdotally, I haven't seen people checking facebook or talking about it as much as the previously mentioned 2 apps. I do feel like something has to give sooner or later. Most like FB's deceitful practices will quietly find their way into all their products like a cancer sooner or later. Maybe regulation and strict privacy rights for users will force change, or another service that offers to connect you to people will come along and spark more joy than facebook does. When that happens, you can properly thank facebook, and delete your account, like I did today.