It is clear that Facebook prioritizes profit over the well-being of children and all users.Francis Haugen - Facebook, Former Data Scientist & Facebook Papers Whistleblower
Many modern online services base their means of revenue on a business model called surveillance capitalism - also known as people farming. Every and any interactions with these "free" services are tracked and used to build a digital identity of a person that describes them in more detail than most would be comfortable to admit. This ranges from basic contact data to data on hobbies, habits, health, financials, political views, sexual preferences and many more.
The data is then sold to companies and in turn provides them with detailed targeting options on which ads to show to who.
Outrage, anger and hate generate the most attention; ads that generate the highest attention yield the largest profits. This creates a dynamic that is unethical at best and deadly at worst.
It is a mostly unregulated system that has been used to effectively fan violence, manipulate users and destabilize democracies while generating immense profits for platform operators.
We've created a system that biases towards false information. Not because we want to, but because false information makes the companies more money than the truth. The truth is boring.Sandy Parakilas - Facebook, Former Operations Manager
The various shapes of surveillance capitalism constitute a systemic issue that is largely prevalent on platforms such as Facebook*, Instagram and Twitter. It extends far into mainstream service providers such as Google and it's products Gmail, Calendar, YouTube and others, Snapchat, TikTok, Zoom, Discord, and many more.
The general rule of thumb is:
If you're not paying for the product, then you are the product.Tristan Harris - Google, Former Design Ethicist *The company Meta owns and operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
There is a whole array of companies profiteering off surveillance capitalism, but Facebook has an outstanding record of routinely placing public-relations, profit, and regulatory concerns over user welfare.
Because Facebook tolerated and profited from slave trade and human trafficking.
Because Facebook fanned ethnic violence and destabilized democracies for profit, most recently in Myanmar and Ethiopia.
Because Facebook facilitated Brexit by spreading misinformation, made a fortune and filed lawsuits to cover it up.
Because Facebook is lobbying against privacy laws, globally.
Because Facebook gave exclusive access to private messages to large tech companies, device vendors, retailers, entertainment sites, automakers and media organizations.
Because Facebook hired climate change deniers as fact-checkers.
Because Facebook manipulates emotions targeting specific user groups.
Because Facebook covertly paid 13 year olds to install spy software on their devices.
Because Facebook just pretends be transparent on which ads are shown to users.
Because Facebook employees read private messages one by one to train Facebook’s artificial intelligence.
Because Facebook stole 1.5 million people’s email contacts after asking them for their email passwords.
Because Facebook took the phone numbers given to them for “security” reasons and used them for advertising.
Because Facebook keeps all uploaded videos, even when they are "deleted" by users.
Because Facebook fusing Instagram Facebook and Whatsapp was not about your privacy. It was about consolidating all the data they have on their users.
Because Facebook updated an old press release with information that millions of passwords of instagram accounts had been compromised while the Mueller report was being released in order to avoid criticism and scrutiny.
Because Facebook hired the author of the PATRIOT act, the most significant threats to civil liberties privacy and democratic traditions in US history as general counsel.
Because Facebook employees say “F*ck ethics - money is everything”.
Because Facebook knows conspiracy theories are being spread on their platforms and make a fortune out of it.
Because, like most major US technology companies, Facebook avoids paying taxes with company constructs in Ireland.
We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us...John M. Culkin, The Medium is the Message
Everyone Hates Facebook - so what now?
With millions of users, Mastodon is one of the most popular alternative social networks.
Misskey is an open source, decentralized social media platform.
A Facebook-style social network with no central ownership.
Facebook alternative based on the principles of decentralisation, freedom and privacy.
Ad-free photo sharing app with chronological timeline.
Federated social link aggregation and discussion platform, similar to Reddit.
A decentraliced platform for uploading and sharing videos.
A social network for tracking your reading, talking about books, writing reviews, and discovering what to read next.
A decentralised secure gossip platform. This one is for more tech-savvy users or for those who have friends that use it.
Open-source text, voice and video messaging app developed by a non-profit organization. Sustained entirely by grants and donations.
Open-source text, voice and video messaging.
Open-source, secure video chat.
Experimental peer-to-peer community chat platform.
An open standard for online communication.
An open network for secure, decentralised communication.
A privacy focused online collaboration suite for documents, presentations and spreadsheets.
A non-tracking meeting scheduling tool.
An ethical alternative to Facebook events, groups and pages.
Simple, self-hosted group calendar.
A privacy focused search engine.
Google search results without the tracking.
Alternative frontends let you access the content of an ad-driven platforms without being tracked. These platforms frequently become unstable as they are developed by small, open-source communities and are attacked by platform holders for circumventing their business model.
YouTube content without the tracking.
For more entertaining elaborations of surveillance capitalism.
A documentary examining how social media's design nurtures addiction to maximize profit, and its ability to manipulate people's views, emotions, and behavior and spread conspiracy theories and disinformation.
A website by the german comedian and journalist Jan Böhmermann in lieu of the ZDF Magazin Royal Facebook feature.
A german interview with the Signal Messenger president in the Austrian newspaper Falter.
This website is an updated, static version of the now-defunct www.stopusingfacebook.co
The source can be found at https://git.sr.ht/~rostiger/stopUsingFacebook
The contents of this page are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
If you find any broken links, errors or would like to add a listing, please get in touch on Mastodon.
