Goodbye, Facebook

About a month ago, I started getting reminders to enable Facebook Protect, some feature meant to protect certain people who may be targeted by folks up to no good or even other social media platforms. Meta specifically mentions accounts of politicians or candidates who may require additional protection during elections. So the funny thing is that I’m no politician, and I barely even post about politics. I avoid doing so as much as I can, for my sanity’s sake, and well, for friendships' sake. I felt it was a strong-arm move to impose a seeming “need”.

It may look random, but I feel their algorithm checks my networks. Most likely, they’ve figured out that tons of my friends are uber active political analysts, whether self-proclaimed or not. Anyway to hell with their arm-twisting, no? I wasn’t going to give them what they want, primarily because they think they know what’s good for me, and because they didn’t bother offering an opt-out.  

Some time in the afternoon of 12 Nov, I got locked out of Facebook and Messenger. Instagram seems to be working for me, and so is WhatsApp. I told my family and friends through Twitter, Telegram, and Signal that I wouldn’t be posting on Facebook anymore, nor would I be able to comment on any posts I’m tagged in. I think the best take away is that I managed to get my family to use Telegram instead of Messenger if they wanted to talk with us here in SG.

I was able to cross-post from Instagram yesterday, so I think I’ll be exploiting that option meantime. Am I going to enable the feature sometime in the future? No. No thanks, Meta!