Farewell Facebook
You put greed above social responsibility and violated our trust by selling our private information.
We’ve had a lot of fun these past 14 years; keeping in touch with friends and family, sharing photos, quips and stories; playing massive amounts of Farmville and Bejeweled.
But it’s time for this relationship to come to an end. And I want you to know it’s not me, it’s you. You’ve become a toxic garbage heap of racist memes, clickbait, fake news stories, and autoplay adverts. You’ve allowed your platform to be abused by some of this country’s, and even the world’s, most insidious and hate-filled voices. Above all, you put greed above social responsibility and violated our trust by selling our private information.
In your quest generate more and more revenue you allowed a foreign power to hijack and use you in socially and democratically catastrophic ways. You became a vehicle to distribute mass misinformation that has already cost this country dearly; and while I always knew about this ugly side of you, I was willing to look the other way because I believed you were also doing more good than harm by bringing people closer together. It is clear by Mr. Zuckerberg’s testimony, that’s not your primary function nor your driving company philosophy anymore — and maybe it never was.
The worst part of all of this is that you thought you could get away with it. You knew what you were doing was wrong, or at the very least, morally, ethically, and legally ambiguous but you did it anyway out of greed. Even after these revelations came to light, you deflected and downplayed your involvement in the hacking of our democratic elections and selling our of private data for profit. After all the reports and investigations and Congressional testimony you are still slow to change that which is destroying you and everyone that uses your service. And while there is no law that can punish you fully, that doesn’t mean I have to subject myself to your toxicity anymore.
In short, I’m quitting you.
And I’m not the first nor will I be the last: Mozilla, Pepboys, SpaceX, Tesla, and Germany’s 2nd largest bank, Commerzbank, have already departed for greener pastures. And while I’m sure you will weather this storm for at least a few more years, I can’t help but feel that this is the beginning of the end for you. I wish I could say “good luck” and hope for the best, in reality that’s not what I want for you. Perhaps it is time for Facebook to wither and die. The damage has been done. Your reputation is in tatters. Our information is out there so maybe the best thing to do is burn it all to the ground and start over. Dark? I know. A step too far? Maybe not.
After Facebook, I’m not sure where I’ll go or if it’ll be better. But that’s the risk of change and it’s a risk I am willing to take because the status quo is no longer palatable for me.
Farewell, Facebook. It’s time for you to go.
