Following the recent Facebook blunder surrounding the misappropriation of tens of millions of users personal data, the #DeleteFacebook hashtag has begun trending across the open web. Publishers and journalists who've long held a grudge against the platform regarding its policies towards brand pages, appear to have seized the moment to take a crack at the now more vulnerable than ever social network. Users on Twitter have also banded in mass to speak out against Facebook's deceptive privacy practices, insisting on others to follow suit in deleting their existing Facebook accounts. Facebook's current woes appear to be the result of a culmination of factors, especially with regards to the deceptive data scraping processes of the data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.
For starters, much of the current backlash that's striking Facebook at present has a lot to do with what its users say was the platform's failure in protecting their private data. The results for Facebook have been disastrous too, with their stock tanking in recent days, as domestic and foreign regulators have begun demanding answers, all the while the platform's users are closing their accounts in droves!
While Facebook has since moved to ban Cambridge Analytica from using their platform, the data firm has already amassed the data for over 50 million users, and so far there's no proof that the firm actually deleted any of the data they stated they did. Cambridge came under fire for scraping users data without their consent, and often doing so with the use of personality test apps, which duped users into willingly giving up their personal data, which was then used for politically related purposes.
Cambridge Analytica was subsequently hired by Trump's election team during the presidential campaign, in which data collected by the firm was used to create psychological profiles of unsuspecting Facebook users. Not surprisingly, Steve Bannon actually helped launch Cambridge back in 2014, as well as oversaw the early efforts of the firm to collect users data. Here's more on that story from the Press Herald: "Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica’s collection of Facebook data, former employee claims".
Right now, it seems journalists and the media are practically standing inline, whip in hand, to take a crack at the social media platform they've long held animosity towards. One headline out of Mashable states "How To Delete Your Facebook", another from CNET reads "How To Delete Your Facebook Once and For All!", while yet another publisher, Newsweek, appears to be rubbing more salt in Facebook's wounds by further highlighting the backlash the platform is currently facing. Newsweek's latest headline reads "#DeleteFacebook Is Trending, Is This the End of the Social Network?". Here's another piece, this time from Consumer Reports that reads "How to Quit Facebook".
Even notable names in tech have voiced their insistence on Facebook users jumping ship. WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton took to Twitter to tell users "It is time to #DeleteFacebook", as noted in this article from the Verge titled "WhatsApp Co-Founder Tells Everyone Delete Facebook".
Besides all the negative publicity and backlash from regulators, it seems Facebook's investors are fed with with the tech giant as well. After news hit of the Cambridge Analytics scandal, Facebook's investors have now filed lawsuits against the platform, who's stock plunged by more than $50 billion dollars in less than a week, and those drops in value don't appear to be slowing either.
As noted in a recent article from CNN, Facebook investors stated they're suing because, "Facebook made materially false and misleading statements" regarding the company's policies, and they claim the platform failed to disclose that it allowed third parties to access data on millions of people without their knowledge.
To be honest, I can hardly feel bad for a crooked social platform and tech giant who's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, masquerades as a philanthropist, when in fact he's done nothing but siphon tens of billions of dollars out of the U.S economy each year; all the while never giving anything back to those hard working journalists and publishers who produced the content that's long been a driving force of the platform's success.
The sooner this worthless social platform fails the better, as far as I'm concerned. Besides its robbing of journalists and publishers, along with continued depleting of America's wealth, Facebook has long resulted to tactics of manipulation and deceit to harvest its earnings.
Facebook promotes sensational headlines and politically motivated hatred from rogue publishers, and its all done in the name of profits. Even after busting several publishers like Campus Reform and The Gateway Pundit for repeatedly posting fake news stories on the platform, Facebook's response was to allow them to continue their campaigns of manipulation and deceit unabated. Its kind of hard for Facebook to argue its done all it can to combat misinformation on its platform when it willingly and knowingly promotes the publishers of fake news.
While Facebook publicly touts itself as a platform for people to connect with friends and family, the facts prove otherwise. If anything, Facebook is the platform that divides society in the name of political garbage!
Don't fall for the Zuckerberg ploy that he's donating the bulk of his wealth to charity either. Again, notice none of the incredible wealth both Zuck and his tech conglomerate have amassed is ever shared back with their platform's contributors. Likewise, he's only donating his personal wealth, not that of his business interests, including Facebook. The bulk of Zuckerberg's philanthropy is clearly a PR move to keep the public's interest in his money machine we call Facebook.
To further compound the extent of Facebook's unending greed, just take a look at a recent post that better outlines the platform's gaming for creators initiative, in which the platform was trying to entice streamers to make use of Facebook as an alternative to platforms like Twitch and YouTube. Yet, Facebook never offered any incentive for streaming their, not even a red cent from its bulky ad revenues, all of which it would rather keep for its pathetic self. Facebook's Gaming For Creators Initiative is a Sham, and Here's Why!
This also isn't the first time we've seen calls from the public to delete their Facebook accounts. Back in the earlier days of Google+ it wasn't an odd event to see thousands of G+ users stating they had in fact closed their Facebook accounts.
All being said, the demise of Facebook would only be a blessing for humanity as a whole. Besides Facebook's profiting off the manipulation of its users, I've seen first hand as an active journalist and web publisher just how its policies towards the news world have caused more economic pain and suffering than one could ever imagine. No doubt, Facebook has long been the social platform that puts profits first and foremost over people, and its days as the world's leading social network are clearly numbered.
Unlike Facebook, competing platforms like Steemit, Kred, and others actually work to reward the creative minds that contribute to their platforms.
Written and published by Daniel Imbellino, co-founder of Strategic Social Networking! Connect with me on Google+:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DanielImbellino
Check Out Strategic Social Networking Community on Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/116564172151613669656
Crazy how Facebook fails to protect private information of their users that they always ask them when they first sign up. Its a big security issue. I only use facebook these days to PM other close friends in messenger or promote my videos and steemit posts there. Hope something better replaces facebook soon to be honest :P Like Steemit when it improves the notifications system.
OHH and seeing you are a gamer, check out my latest post. It combines a gaming franchise and cryptos at once :)
Yeah, Facebook is an absolute disgrace to social media as a whole. Besides all the issues with data and privacy, they unfairly discriminate against independent journalists and media outlets, all the while promoting fake news on a massive scale. Its like they're always trying to dictate who and what we interact with too. Every time I look at my home feed there its full of political garbage I have no interest in. Its pure manipulation and beyond deceitful.
Google+ and Twitter are far better alternatives, neither of which will ever try and charge you money to reach your own followers like Facebook does. They also don't try and manipulate who and what you interact with.
Facebook has always been the worst place to try and build an audience on the web, they only give visibility to major publishers of their choosing, and throw everyone else out with the trash.
Yeah I have noticed when I go on Twitter, I only get feeds that I follow and am interested about. Facebook I get feeds from friends I know... and yeah, Facebook only wants you to be friends with people that you know, not strangers to expand your social circle. I found Discord and Steemit to slowly become more effective to me in building an audience. YouTube as well sometimes too better than facebook :P
Yep! Twitter's algorithms are setup to surface the content, ideas, and people that most interest you and are the most relevant. This is in stark contrast to Facebook's newsfeed algorithm, which is designed to manipulate you. Its as if Facebook wants to decide who interact with, and what our interests should be, its brainwash.
Exactly man! I mostly stick with YouTube, Steemit, Twitter and Discord to get the news feed that I care most about man :)
Wait there is something big going on with Facebook now and private info? So are profiles in danger as of now? I had no idea so much was going on I knew from your previous blog that they are a terrible place to find any growth at all on things like writing or doing videos etc. growing a following. But now this crap? Geez how far does this go downhill? Also what is Kred? I have never heard of that place before.
Well, I wouldn't say Facebook profiles are necessarily in danger, but the ways in which Facebook user data were obtained and used by data analytics firms like Cambridge Analytica were definitely deceitful and dishonest. They lied to Facebook users, telling them they were collecting data to be used with a personality test; when in fact the data was being used to create psychological profiles of Facebook users in order to create election campaign ads that would help steer better results for Trump.
Trump's election committee hired the firm to help with promoting their campaign, and Steve Bannon was actually one of the people who helped launch the firm to begin with. While Trump may not have had any knowledge as to what was going on, Bannon definitely did, and he knew what Cambridge was doing because he was one of those running it.
With all the talk of Russia attempting to manipulate the last election, it was actually Trump's own campaign and the people he trusted (Bannon) that attempted to manipulate users on social media in hopes of steering their support during the election process.
The deceitful harvesting of user data without disclosing what that data was being used for is why so many are so incredibly angry with Facebook right now. To be honest, I'm not surprised by any of this, as politics has always been a game of deceit and dishonesty anyway.
While what Cambridge and Bannon did were fundamentally wrong, this doesn't make up for the fact we live in a world of stupid people who're easily manipulated and will believe any misinformation that's thrown in their face. We need a better system of education so that people can be smart enough to tell the difference between fact from fiction.
I personally dislike Facebook for a whole different set of reasons. What I find to be the most distasteful is the fact the platform robs journalists and publishers of their audiences and forces them to pay in order to get visibility. Facebook also never shares a dime of its massive wealth back with its greatest of contributors, their greed is just unreal! Their willingness to openly promote misinformation on such a mass scale is another reason I think Facebook is bad news.
As for Kred, its a data firm that's centered upon measuring social influence of internet users, and they boast a whole line of products, services, and platforms that help both people and organizations determine and measure their influence online.
Kred has a social platform/virtual stock market game, that's freely open to the public. The platform is a social network in its own right, and the virtual stock market surrounding it allows users to invest in each other using the platform's virtual currency called Eaves. I'm considering do a write up better explaining how the platform works in the near future.
You are forgetting that Facebook keeps shadow profiles created whenever a friend or family member send you an invitation. Deleting your Facebook profile is not as helpfull
While you may be right in terms of Facebook's data retention practices, the argument here isn't solely about data, but rather how deceitful, dishonest, and greedy this company is. There are far better reasons for people to ditch Facebook, including the fact the platform has been siphoning billions of dollars annually from our economy while never giving anything back to its contributors, all the while robbing publishers and journalists by forcing them to pay to reach their own followers.
Facebook touts itself as the platform that brings people together, but the facts prove otherwise. Facebook puts up brick walls for anyone with a creative interest, forcing them to pay to reach even their own family members. My mother could die tomorrow and my friends and family on Facebook would never know it, as Facebook would say "Boost this post to reach more of the people you care about!" Facebook is truly the butt stain of the social web, and people should stop supporting their unending greed.
Not to mention the platform openly promotes fake news on a massive scale, and its always done in the name of profits. Its the social platform of brainwash, manipulation, and unending deceit, and Facebook will always take advantage of it to shove more ads down people's throats.
Not disagreeing here.
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