After some long thought on the matter, literally years at this point, I have decided to no longer support or participate in any Facebook-owned property including: Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Oculus VR. The evidence of psychological tampering and abuse at this point is irrefutable. The damage that Zuckerberg has done to society I feel is past the tipping point. Divides are deeper than ever, conspiracy theories run rampant and unchecked, while normal people and ideas are demoted out of timelines as they don’t generate enough attention for the algorithm.
Beyond the subliminal borderline torture that Facebook encourages, their platforms simultaneously siphon off all of your private data. Whether it was explicit with their Onavo VPN product (delisted due to privacy abuses by Google and Apple), the now-defunct relationship with Cambridge Analytica, or implicit from mining all of your contacts and conversations over the years, Facebook has become a real threat to privacy and safety. Other companies are not blameless, for sure. Amazon is marching down the path of the auth-right, enabling police access to your Ring doorbells around-the-clock in some juristictions, to enabling identification and machine learning en-masse. This is a specific battle I am picking, the battle for my mind. I don’t need the hate and misinformation that Facebook hopes will live rent-free in my mind, encouraging me to come back for another taste.
It’s not going to be easy to leave - and that’s by design. Whenever it came to software I always design with vendor lock-in as a concern, making sure that whatever I write could be ported out. But I didn’t do that with my social life. I am aiming to change that, I will be rebuilding my website and opening up my alternative methods of communication. I will share what I accomplish as I go, and the end goal will be to leave Facebook properties forever.