Tech & Biz

May 31: "Quit Facebook Day'

by Jordan Yerman | May 14, 2010 at 02:41 pm

1054 views | 16 Recommendations | 7 comments

Matthew Milan and Joseph Dee Create 'Quit Facebook Day'

Facebook has been hit by a public backlash over its (mis)handling of user content. Facebook held an all-staff meeting to deal with the fallout from a string of poor decisions; the details of the meeting have not been publicized. Hopefully, though, Mark Zuckerberg and company are ready to deal with "Quit Facebook Day" on May 31.

Matthew Milan and Joseph Dee formed a Quit Facebook Day site, referenced below. Only around 500 people have signed up, but for a site which has been treated by users as a utility, any organized mass account suicide shows which way the wind is blowing.

An event like this won't get thousands and thousands of users to quit the popular social-networking site, but it will prove that there's life after Facebook, and that your "real" friends will still be able-- and want-- to reach you should you leave the herd.

Says Joseph Dee,

Federating personal data without users understanding and consent is unethical.#quitfacebookday

Matthew Milan is serious about cutting the cord, and is in fact quitting Facebook on May 17, but does not think it's that big a deal:

The thing that amazes me the most about#quitfacebookday is that people seem to find what I'm doing to be unusual. It's a website! ;)

The cumulative effects of what Facebook does now will not play out well in the future, and we care deeply about the future of the web as an open, safe and human place. We just can't see Facebook's current direction being aligned with any positive future for the web, so we're leaving.

We asked Milan if he had anything to add about why he was quitting Facebook and he said, "I want to reiterate is that privacy is not why I'm quitting FB - Privacy is a symptom of a set of larger issues, but for most, it's the easiest to understand."

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ZbOROVAN

at 21:17 on May 14th, 2010

Much ado about nothing.

B. Zelley

at 21:32 on May 14th, 2010

members of facebook have a responsibilty to use care in posting as sometimes things said even in so called private notes can come back to bite

LoopZilla

at 04:35 on May 15th, 2010

I have tried to delete one of my Facebook accounts. I found you cannot delete the data. It just stays, dormant!

Roberto Alvarez-Galloso

at 06:15 on May 15th, 2010

The problem is that Facebook like most social sites must be used responsibly.

monstershaq2000

at 07:59 on May 15th, 2010

I agree with you all, Watch what you say, and what you post on Facebook. Facebook isn't as private as many people think.

anarkissed

at 08:54 on May 15th, 2010

I'm a happy facebook user and not terribly concerned about my privacy. I learned a long time ago that you shouldn't put certain things online at all. Not in a forum, list, chat room or website. There may be exceptions to this rule but those should be carefully chosen when you know better. Years ago an email list demanded that I post under my full true name. I made up a likely pseudonym for them. I am very careful not to put my true full name online, generally, although it turns up. I am also careful about my address, phone number, DOB and more. You just shouldn't post that stuff on a world wide billboard. If we could teach that to people then privacy on facebook wouldn't be such an issue. We're going to wind up tying it in so many knots to close the privacy loopholes that it will be unusuable.

dee kat (not verified)

at 09:37 on May 15th, 2010

ive suspected all along facebook was no good, so i never signed up...........as usual i was right.peeps, theres a million ways to keep the real freinds on the web and ditch the parasites.......you can bet the NSA is neck deep in facebook , promote facebook , promote the police state!