Google searches for how to cancel and delete Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts have seen rises in the U.S. since Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
  • Teknikal@eviltoast.orgEnglish
    9·
    2 days ago

    I’ve never had even a single Facebook account, to explain why it’s because the UK police once tried to stitch me up and they kept demanding my Facebook account (presumably to fish) I never had one but they would not let that go.

    Once I got representation that line of questioning ended but holy hell did they seem to put a lot of emphasis on my non existent Facebook account.

    For the curious I was raided due to an anonymous phone (to the mayor’s office) call that claimed I was going to shoot up my workplace or something ridiculous.

    My belief is the police wanted to impress the mayor so they just wouldn’t let it go despite being nonsense until I paid representation to make them behave.

    • SolaceFiend@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      This is actually crazy, on the part of the UK police. I knew the UK government are more like that nosy old granny with binoculars than we have it in the States when it comes to stuff like Facebook and etc, but damn. I will allow that school shooting threats are serious, but in and of itself, actively trying to interrogate someone and demanding their SNS is a new level of invasive imo.

    • Retreaux@lemmy.worldEnglish
      75·
      3 days ago

      It was that combined with the fact that they create shadow profiles for your unborn child when your wife is pregnant. (Found out through FB being allowed to track your browsing history even off the app). That was the final straw right after the Cambridge Analytica issue.

      • kofe@lemmy.worldEnglish
        27·
        3 days ago

        Wait what the bloody fuck? I haven’t heard anything about this. Sounds right up their alley, but what evidence is it based on?

        • Retreaux@lemmy.worldEnglish
          19·
          3 days ago

          If you look up the practical application of Shadow profiles they have the ability to gather information about non-users, which also includes unborn children in the case of them discovering that the mother is pregnant through whatever web searches that they may be doing even outside of Facebook. The whole science of Shadow profiles used to strengthen the algorithm is incredibly frightening and part of the reason why I left Facebook.

          • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
            1·
            2 days ago

            I can almost excuse shadow profiles for things like “two people both have X contact in their phone”, but making them for unborn children? Lord have mercy. That’s genuinely crazy. It makes me wonder if it’s something like they just marked someone as pregnant based on searches (weird, but maybe acceptable, idk) and it got taken out of context? Hopefully? Either way it’s icky.

        • ditty@lemm.eeEnglish
          13·
          3 days ago

          I hadn’t heard of this either but here’s an article about Facebook keeping shadow profiles on non-users that references an article from 2012 where Target’s data collection determined a teen girl was pregnant before she told her dad

    • Sabata@ani.socialEnglish
      13·
      3 days ago

      People should have deleted it as soon as their parents figured out how to make an account.

      • cybersandwich@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Haha! That’s what I did. When my aunt tried to friend request me on Facebook, I bailed.

        I joined back in college when it was an invite only walled-garden of college kids. Zucks pic was still in the banner when I joined iirc. They hadn’t release “the wall” or much of what Facebook eventually became.

        But when parents and coworkers started trying to friend request me I realized it was time to bail.

        So 12 years ago? Maybe just 10.

        I have never missed it at all.

    • Whateley@lemm.eeEnglish
      12·
      2 days ago

      I deleted mine shortly thereafter. I tried to convince friends and family to do the same but got accusations of being paranoid or a conspiracy theorist. Jump to now, everyone’s Christmas gifts from them this year was tatty bullshit from Temu that was advertised to them on Facebook and I spend most of my time with them dismantling conspiracy theories and misinformation they picked up from the dumbasses they interact with on that fucking site.

    • UristMcHolland@lemmy.worldEnglish
      10·
      2 days ago

      I deleted my Facebook account years ago, probably right around 2016. I met a new girl last year and she wanted me to make a Facebook account so she could send me stuff. I relented and made a “new” account using the same email I used back in 2016. Low and behold, Facebook never deleted a fucking thing.

    • RagingRobot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      3 days ago

      It would be easier if they didn’t buy other products I already used. I hate that shit so much. I wish companies were all banned from buying other companies. A company should be one thing, not own all the things. It’s hard to choose who you do business with in our country because of this. Even if we all drop these apps today and move to something else they will try to buy that too.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      I beat it by a year or two. For me it was that every time I would log in, my cousin’s friend would say hi, and I’ve only talked to him like once at a family gathering he was at for some reason. I realized most of my Facebook use was deflecting that person instead of actually talking to friends. I looked into it and thought it was super creepy what Facebook was doing with my data, and realized I was getting nothing for all of that invasion of my privacy, so I bailed.

      I had to create an account a few years later (probably around 2016) because I needed to work with some FB employees for a couple weeks, and then I deleted it after that contract.

      Since then, I’ve avoided all Meta products.

    • Kalysta@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      That’s when I started refusing to use it. I only still have my account because my family refuses to call when shit happens now and only seem to announce it on facebook. So i check it every 6 months.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
      22·
      3 days ago

      Stayed with FB despite Cambridge because Portal TV.

      I’ll still maintain an account because Portal TV.

      It’s a gorgeous product done wrong by meta and in need of a cloning.

  • ToastySaff@lemmy.worldEnglish
    871·
    3 days ago

    He’s getting very Trumpy with the orange tint and pale skin around the eyes.

  • Ithorian@lemmy.worldEnglish
    412·
    3 days ago

    We all know that in the end only maybe 1 or 2% max will delete their account

  • kipo@lemm.eeEnglish
    33·
    3 days ago

    According to Google Trends, related searches like “how to delete all photos facebook,” “alternative to facebook,” “how to quit facebook,” “how to delete threads account,” and “how to delete instagram account without logging in” have become breakout searches, with popularity suddenly increasing by over 5,000% compared to previous periods.

    So that is 51 times higher than usual? Am I mathing that correctly?

    I wish stories like this wouldn’t use percentages this way, and reported hard actual numbers to compare against.

    • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      So true… When I see 100% more, I interpret it as 2x. But somewhere around, idk, maybe 300% I interpret “300% more” as 3x. I know that’s technically not correct, but it’s just where my brain goes. I think a good deal of people just throw around “n% more” and “n% as often” interchangeably without much thought.

      Luckily, the bigger the number the less of a difference between the two which is aligned with my brain using them the same.

      (And obviously, if it’s anything technical where it matters I would get clarification.)

      • Alenalda@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        3 days ago

        And those are real users too. They are intching closer and close to just being a bot hellscape.

  • hypnicjerk@lemmy.worldEnglish
    314·
    2 days ago

    i’m so tired of nothingburger feel good ‘stories’ about search trends

    this really is just reddit lite

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      Eh, it goes harder in some of the bad things about Reddit, but it’s better in others. So it’s less “Reddit lite” and more discount Reddit.

  • rickdg@lemmy.worldEnglish
    221·
    3 days ago

    Once these platforms are perceived as a way for people to make a living somehow, they ain’t leaving. That’s why nice places like mastodon stay niche. Without virality, people don’t see the upside for them. They want a grift they can understand.

    • Zink@programming.devEnglish
      5·
      3 days ago

      That is sounding more and more like a benefit to me. Social media that functions as social media for humans and not just another giant corporate surveillance and marketing machine wearing a fun app costume.

      • rickdg@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        I get it, but I also understand people that need to go “this is me, can I have some money?” on social media.

        • Zink@programming.devEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          Oh yeah no disagreement there. The way that social media of all types democratizes content creation and celebrity status is great.

          For me personally, the YouTube model is great where individuals can basically produce their own TV show or documentaries. But all the other big corporate social media services are meh in comparison. When it comes to interaction rather than consuming, that’s when I love Lemmy.

  • DocumentingReality@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    221·
    3 days ago

    I posted that article on Mastodon. So, yeah…

    I hope more people will find that these open source social media sites are much better run. As well, as a much better platform than Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.

    Although, I do miss Myspace. The old platform.

    I deactivated my Twitter and Facebook accounts weeks ago. I have my friends and family “moved over” to Friendica. They seem to like it so far. I have even posted (on Friendica) a few links of other open source social sites for them to check out.

  • Kongar@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    277·
    3 days ago

    Will never happen. Those platforms literally push addiction. It’s why the fediverse won’t ever compete imo - there’s no dopamine hit here of likes, # of friends, send a snap right now (or whatever they are called), streaks, etc.

    • theangryseal@lemmy.worldEnglish
      24·
      3 days ago

      I get it. I left Facebook when they changed the feed like a thousand years ago and I haven’t missed it.

      My wife is definitely addicted though. She left it for a year, went back just to check in on family after a friend of hers had a baby and she didn’t know about it. She hasn’t put it down since.

      She’s a very family oriented person and everyone is on Facebook. Their family is the type to wake up first thing in the morning and start calling each other.

      Within minutes of being up, “Ok kids let’s talk to mamaw. Let’s talk to aunty. Now we’re calling great grandma!” Cousins, aunts, uncles, everybody. They’re always talking.

      My family is tight like if something goes wrong, but we don’t talk much otherwise. Sister needs help with a bill, someone’s car breaks down, blah blah blah. We can count on each other, just not to talk.

      I get why it means so much to her and why it’s been easier for me. I’ll know my cousin had a kid when I bump into her with it at the grocery store. That’s good enough for my people. :p

    • affiliate@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      3 days ago

      i agree with what you’re saying and i think we’re mostly on the same page here. i just felt it would be worth saying that, from my perspective, the point of the fediverse isn’t to compete with those websites but instead to be an alternative to them. it’s to offer a picture of what social media can be like without dark patterns, extreme surveillance, and constant enshittification. and there is a really comfort in that. it feels really nice to not have to worry about a website or app getting worse every time i use it.

      i also feel like the people on here tend to behave more thoughtfully (in general) than people on reddit and other for profit social media websites. and it wouldn’t surprise me if that was in part due to the absence of dark patterns making lemmy feel more relaxed and less high stakes. there’s also a bit of a small town feeling on this website that i kind of like too.

  • gubblebumbum@lemm.eeEnglish
    151·
    3 days ago

    It comes preinstalled in a lot of phones and cant be uninstalled and in some phones they dont preinstall the main fb app instead they’d have something like ‘facebook manager’ or ‘something service’ which only shows up in app list when you select the “show system apps” option.

    • TachyonTele@lemm.eeEnglish
      16·
      3 days ago

      I’ve read stories that fb is basically the internet for countries in Africa. It’s their version of America Online, but much worse.

      • couch1potato@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        17·
        3 days ago

        In mexico most (if not all) cell service providers give social media for free, ie it uses no data in your phone plan.

        What is social media, according to these companies? Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram. That’s it. Everyone uses Facebook marketplace and WhatsApp for everything, because it’s “free”.

        I think most people don’t understand the stranglehold Meta has over a huge portion of the world’s population. I’m confident this arrangement is not only going on in mexico.

        • Ofiuco@lemmy.cafeEnglish
          4·
          3 days ago

          Worst part is the only free part is the texting, any kind of multimedia will consume data, but people never read what they sign and then get mad when they run out… And then they sign for a bigger data plan to compensate instead of adjusting their usage.

      • gubblebumbum@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        3 days ago

        Thats what internet.org was about, fb partnered with major telecoms in many countries with no net neutrality laws to let people use fb for free and a few other websites but except for wikipedia most were pretty much useless.

    • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      5·
      3 days ago

      It comes preinstalled in a lot of phones

      Those are typically carrier-sold phones.

      Most unlocked phones purchased directly from the manufacturer (or via a retail store like BestBuy) do not have it pre-installed, and even if it is, its removable.

      • deadcream@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        7·
        3 days ago

        Nope. My Galaxy S23 is unlocked and it has Facebook and Meta crap installed as “system” apps. Same with an older Sony phone.

        • Ilovethebomb@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          3 days ago

          Weirdly enough, the best manufacturers for minimum bloat ware are the Chinese brands. Doogee and Ulefone have the bare minimum, just the basic Google apps.

  • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    13·
    3 days ago

    that’s some glorious schadenfreude

    zuck just few hours ago: “people who talk about leaving facebook are just virtue signalling”