The rate at which Facebook is deleting Instagram accounts is alarming, and more than overtly obnoxious.
If Facebook was God, there would be virtually nobody in Heaven after the rapture, because Zuck would have permanently disabled everybody’s account. It would be him and his friend Sheryl only in the Kingdom. He may even have accidentally deleted his wife’s account.
Facebook founders must have sat somewhere and thought long and hard about Google’s “Don’t be evil” motto and decided they were going to be an alternative major internet company. Everyone knows at this point that Facebook is the villain of social media.
Virtually none of Facebook’s early founders are still around at the company, and the tech companies Facebook acquired have also seen major departures due to major differences in values between Facebook and themselves.
Yet Facebook seems to have the highest community standards, yet it does not hold itself to any known standards.
The company is known for splashing huge sums of cash to major publications to keep its reputation intact, and the PR machinery which paints it as a tech angel operates 24/7/365.
But Facebook is no saint. Recently Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Kreiger angrily resigned from the tech behemoth due to Facebook’s increased demands for draconian control over the platform.
Earlier this year, Facebook said it had purged or deleted over 1.5 billion accounts in 6 months.
However Facebook doesn’t always have a legitimate reason to shut down accounts, but does so anyway. It was due to similar high handed tactics that Zuck and his crew employ, that many tech giants and consumers are becoming disillusioned with the Facebook brand.
A lot of people do not know this, but if Facebook disables your Facebook account, it will also delete any associated Instagram accounts related to the email you provided Facebook, and will also delete any business pages/ad accounts and similar assets you may have.
This may all be as easy as someone falsely reporting you to Facebook for something you said that offended them, even if you did not mean it to be offensive. There are also reports that Facebook is deleting accounts for political reasons ahead of the 2018 elections. So for instance, if you have a political view that say, Hillary Clinton deems is deplorable, she can report said view and if the technician at Facebook who sees the comment aligns with Hillary, your account may be deleted, or temporarily suspended until after the elections.
Recently, Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s global policy head and a prominent conservative, reportedly was a key critic of a feature Facebook wanted to introduce that according to Kaplan, “would disproportionately silent conservative voices on the platform.”
When Zuck pulls the plug on your account, you go into a state of social media limbo, you will be unable to access your photos, your loved ones, and your friends on all Facebook related platforms.
This affects people who signed up for Facebook, even before they signed up for Instagram. All that Facebook needs to know is you used the same email, and they will delete you on all associated platforms. So it would be wise not to use the same email for all your Facebook related accounts i.e Instagram, Whatsapp and Oculus, because that is the easiest way for Facebook to assassinate you on social media.
For a brand that talks up Community Standards so much, they should at least show some Corporate Standards and do something basic like set up a toll free customer service line, but Facebook is afraid to interact with its user base. It is almost as if users are seen as livestock who are there to make Facebook rich, by seeing ads, and ignoring them for the most part.
Would it be too much for Facebook to tell an account holder that has been deleted or suspended, what their actual offence was? Facebook knows its policies can subject its user base to hardship, and even emotional duress and pain and suffering so it prefers to hire lobbyists in Washington D.C and other parts of the country and world in order to protect its selfish interests against the very people who make the platform a success.
We spoke to one deleted user, Seun, a journalist who runs an online news site based in Lagos. Speaking to The Nigeria Herald, he disclosed “It’s actually been an ordeal with Facebook. I have had my account for about 13 years and then one day, some terribly unkind person decides to just delete my account. Being a journalist, it was a bit annoying and I honestly wondered why I was deleted. Could it be my political views? Something I said someone didn’t agree with. As a married man who loves his family, I know it was not due to any nude or lewd activity on my part. I do not bully people or engage in hate speech. I contacted Facebook and provided my account information and I got a very rude email from a Facebook rep, saying You have now been permanently deleted and I will not be addressing this issue any further.”
Facebook likes to thrive in a capitalistic environment, capitalize on wholesome social values but it is basically a dictatorship. Something from out of early 20th century Europe, with the way they treat people who have opposing views. It needs to stop.