Facebook has become a cesspool. Zuckerberg has outright said it's not going to fact check or remove Trump's (and his loyal supporters') lies, blatant fascism and incitement of violence, despite being in breach of Facebook's policies. The whole platform is being used to spread misinformation and dangerous pseudoscience conspiracy theories about COVID-19, anti-vaccinations, 5G, Bill Gates and the supposed 'Deep State', among many others, and to sow distrust in governments, journalism and scientific establishments, spread propaganda, and manipulate elections in many countries. Hate groups and white supremacists are allowed to organise and flourish unimpeded - becoming 4chan-for-the-masses. Privacy controls are a joke when all your activity on- and off-Facebook is logged and sold to anybody who is willing to pay for your data, and not just advertisers.

I have of friends and family on there, and it's great to be able to keep in touch with everyone in one place, but that 'stickiness' is engineered, and that's why it's intentionally so difficult for anybody to leave or close their account, myself included. I'm going to try anyway. A few months ago I uninstalled the Facebook app on my phone to add a bit of friction and avoid the temptation of checking my feed every time I have a free moment. It's worked and I now only log in once a week or so, but whenever I do so, I end up getting angry and filled with despair. I've decided I need to stop, for the sake of my mental health and well-being, and to deactivate my account there.

This is a copy of my last post on Facebook, and I'm going to start publishing here on my own website again, and using other self-hosted or federated services. I will be reducing my Facebook footprint, including their other apps and services like WhatsApp and Instagram.

#DeleteFacebook