Quitting Facebook for Ethical Reasons

I’m reminded of The Godfather: Part III movie where the Don wants out of the whole mafia life, but he’s in the kitchen and says something like, “They keep sucking me back in!” This is how I feel about Facebook.

Recent revelations about their business practices and priorities, such as this quote from the founder Mark Zuckerberg, “Company over country,” riles my blood.

Here is a good posting from Regina Phelps that she had on LinkedIn that highlights the complexity of being sucked into the Facebook web of social media tools:

Regina Phelps
“#socialmedia For those who still use #Facebook but want out but still a place to go, read this. Every time there’s a scandal, you may have thought about quitting the social network, & this time for real. But you run into the same problem every time: Where exactly should you go? After a rough month of revelations about Facebook’s business practices, culminating with a whistleblower testifying in front of lawmakers about the social network’s harmful impact on children, many are once again trying to figure out how to extricate themselves from the company. But breaking up with FB means also cutting off Instagram, Messenger & WhatsApp, which are all owned by the company. For some people in emerging markets, FB is also their low-cost connection to the Internet. Leaving means giving up on a number of online relationships that you may not be able to re-create elsewhere. It’s not easy to move entire online communities or extended families to other services like Twitter, Slack & TikTok.

“The truth is, leaving FB isn’t possible for everyone. That’s by design. With nearly 3 billion users around the world, FB has a reach that’s closer to a public utility than a fun social app. It’s impractical & even unfair to ask that many people just quit. But for those who can & want to, here’s where they can go next.”