Yeah, it’s happening again.
The call for Facebook’s demise is upon us once again.
Advocating may be a strong word to use in this scenario, but that’s essentially what is happening. A number of people on twitter started the hashtag #deletefacebook due to more recent reports of Facebook’s owner acting out of the ordinary.
This hashtag became the number one trend on Twitter after reports of Mark Zuckerberg engaging a chill hangout session – if you will- with conservative politicians and commentators.
After finding out why people wanted to delete Facebook, it felt like deja vu. Not too long ago, this hashtag surfaced following reports Facebook was using user data to influence the 2016 Presidential election.
According to a 2018 article from BBC, “Four quotes were taken from the interview to infer Facebook’s role in Donald Trump’s 2016 US election victory, such as “Facebook was our hands-on partner,” and “Without Facebook, we wouldn’t have won,” coupled with the call to #DeleteFacebook in response.”
The hashtag honed in on some problems Facebook users have. According to another article from BBC, “People have been using the deletefacebook hashtag to express their views about the platform, which include criticisms of its failure to remove harmful content and stop the spread of disinformation.”
I thought the outrage behind this was funny because as the old saying goes, history repeats itself.
People were encouraged last year to delete their Facebook pages if they wanted to better protect their data and information. A mass of people were up in arms about Facebook stealing their private information and selling it.
I remember thinking Facebook would become the next Myspace and we would see the end of an era, but here we are in 2019 with the same hashtag calling for the same action.
Side note: I also find it funny that people are protesting one social media platform… on another social media platform.
At this point, in this day and age, I don’t see any social media platform ending off of the strength of users coming together and deleting their accounts. People aren’t going to give up their likes, followers, friends, or direct messages. The influence of social media on our current society is too strong.
The hashtag wasn’t all kumbaya either. Some people used the hashtag to argue the opposing end.
Trump went on record earlier this year accusing Facebook of censoring seven right-wing commentators.
Within the hashtag, some people voiced their support for Zuckerberg saying his meeting with conservative politicians shows he isn’t biased and in their mind, this means Facebook isn’t biased.
The conclusion I came to was that people will find any excuse to continue to use social media platforms no matter what controversy surrounds the platform itself, or the owners. Personally, I think using users’ data without them knowing is worse than kicking with a few old conservative buddies.
So if stealing data back in 2018 wasn’t enough to “end” Facebook, then Zuckerberg just hanging out won’t have much of an effect either.