This is a moment of reckoning for Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s relentless pursuit of social media dominance. There is a widespread call for accountability that could change the conversation around digital privacy, but it will ultimately rely on enough of us moving away from the platform to ensure that lasting changes are made.
Following on from my ongoing series on World War Privacy, it should come as no surprise that Future Conscience fully supports the #DeleteFacebook movement. The time has come to take our privacy and online agency into our own hands and push back against those who wish to turn us into faceless products to be bought and sold to the highest bidder.
Detaching from something that has played such a central role in your life is a difficult thing to do, but if you prize values such as freedom, accountability, consent and dignity then there are many reasons you should make the transition and not look back.
Here are nine clear reasons why you should #DeleteFacebook:
1) Cambridge Analytica, Russian bot farms and ‘Fake News’
Facebook has become one of the primary platforms for the weaponisation of social media for the purposes of political propaganda. This isn’t just a ‘Russia problem’ but extends across a vast array of shadowy political agendas that seek to subvert the democratic process through whatever means available.
In just the past year we have seen clear evidence of this occurring through the spreading of fake news items designed to instill division; phony activist groups and pages that harvest data and fraudulently collect donations; and political profiling that delivers customised propaganda directly to users. There are also strong indications that the business model Facebook adheres to was in large part responsible for enabling disinformation to flourish during the Brexit vote that will see the exit of the UK from the European Union.
This has become so much a part of the core operations of Facebook that their very own Head of Security has publicly indicated that he will be resigning in response to how it is being handled internally by the company. This was followed recently by news that the founder of WhatsApp will also be resigning over systemic privacy concerns.
2) Non-consensual experiments on users
Although they are denying knowledge of how user data was misused by the likes of Cambridge Analytica (the “we had no idea, honest!” defense), Facebook themselves have callously undermined the dignity of their users on multiple occasions through psychological experimentation. It’s worth letting that sink in…
Facebook have conducted psychological experiments on users without consent.
These experiments go beyond what is acceptable under the guise of ‘market research’ and instead have directly targeted people’s emotions in both positive and negative ways. By conducting such manipulation, it is reasonable to conclude that Facebook have directly contributed to the levels of depression and mental health problems suffered by some of their users. That is a truly shocking fact and you should delete your Facebook account in protest of such unethical and potentially dangerous pursuits.
3) Zuckerberg thinks you’re a ‘dumb f*ck’
“Yeah so if you ever need any info about anyone at Harvard…just ask…I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, [Social Security Numbers]. People just submitted it. I don’t know why. They trust me. Dumb f*cks.” – Mark Zuckerberg, 2004
4) Most of your Facebook ‘friends’ don’t really care about you
This one might be hard to hear, but the hundreds of relationships you think are being maintained are (for the most part) little more than voyeuristic windows into other people’s lives that you have no intention of ever reconnecting with. It can be satisfying and interesting to watch how people you met decade/s ago are now living their lives – but it’s quite clear that these are ‘friendships’ in only the most shallow of terms.
Numerous studies have shown that your connections on Facebook can’t be relied upon for anything substantial, let alone difficult. They also don’t have the same positive impact on your health as face-to-face friendships do.
5) Facebook is grooming your addiction
Most of us experience the reality of smartphone/internet addiction to varying degrees. Social media platforms take that growing societal problem and actively aim to feed the addiction – they are the ultimate enablers and proud of it. Facebook are grooming you to be addicted to their platform so that they can monetise you as a product.
We’ve recently seen a backlash from ex-Facebook employees, who are warning us of the corrupting nature of social media and the highly-resourced efforts that go into keeping us addicted. Do you want to keep supporting an organisation who thinks so poorly of you that they are willing to openly exploit you?
6) Government surveillance
The seemingly endless lengths that governments will go to ruthlessly invade citizen privacy is well known. What is perhaps a bit less widely understood, though, is the extent to which companies such as Facebook have worked closely with intelligence agencies to provide access and legal frameworks for surveillance operations.
A successful response to overreaching government surveillance requires us to change our behaviours and seek out new, secure ways of conducting communications online. That begins with deleting your Facebook account and finding other ways to keep in touch with your friends, family and colleagues.
7) Censorship will be the new normal
In response to the accusations of facilitating fake news and Russian propaganda, Facebook are, like many tech companies, planning on taking the responsibility of censoring their users into their own hands. This is in line with many governments also taking aim at fake news with various kinds of censorship regimes.
Unfortunately, this will almost certainly mean that a vast array of people with outspoken political views or those deemed political threats by world powers; or anything else against ‘community standards’ will be caught in the AI censorship net and/or outright attacked by those in power through abuse of reporting systems.
8) Evasive testimony
If the above evidence doesn’t convince you, then the manner in which Zuckerberg (and by extension, his advisors and executives at Facebook) conducted himself before Congress should be the final nail in the coffin.
To begin with, Zuckerberg has so far refused calls to testify before the UK parliamentary committee looking into these issues – a point that has annoyed MPs in the UK to the extent they are now threatening a formal summons. Beyond this arrogant snub, we now have clear indications that Facebook is essentially operating a monopoly; that the evasive claims of Cambridge Analytica being a rogue actor are almost certainly false; and, perhaps most tellingly, that Facebook maintain personalised datasets as ‘shadow profiles’ of people who do not even have accounts.
9) Dating app
After all that has come to light and the many privacy grievances that continue to stack up against Facebook, what was their response? Dating profiles. It’s the kind of tone-deaf moment that’s hard to believe – but they want you to now trust them with your most intimate experiences and preferences. Because there’s no reason to think that might be a bad idea now, is there?
Hopefully these nine reasons will be enough for you to take the step of deleting your Facebook account. It might seem like a difficult thing to do, but if we are to respond to the grave injustices being perpetrated against us then it is certainly the right thing to do.
It’s time to #DeleteFacebook and start encouraging others you know to do the same. For website admins, this also means removing the Facebook like/share buttons that allow the company to track your users without consent. Enough is enough.
Header Image by Shop Catalog, Flickr, Creative Commons
