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+:
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