Damn. Monday was ‘Quit Facebook Day’ and I plum forgot to revolt in silent protest. I’d intended to. In fact, I’d intended to first vow to quit Facebook via the appropriate group of vowers, but alas, I haven’t been active enough on Facebook as of late to even remember why I was mad at it in the first place. (I’d gotten my aggressions out on Hatebook, instead.)
To bring you up to speed in case you also missed the boat: After the brainiacs over at FB decided to revamp security standards and settings, a bunch of p.o.’d users decided they’d had enough. Thus was born QuitFacebookDay.com, the beginning of a grassroots movement that, well, never really got moving. The site beckoned: “If you agree that Facebook doesn’t respect you, your personal data or the future of the web, you may want to join us.” A mere 35,000 joined. Far fewer, I assume, actually quit.
The heart of the debate is privacy protection, but the bigger issue for protesters seems to be the future of freedom on the Internet. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hastened to announce some recent updates making security settings more user friendly, at least indicating that key big-wigs are getting the message. It’s doubtful that the masses are going to bail on their social network of choice anytime soon, and a colossal flop of a campaign might have made the privacy argument appear flimsy, but every revolution has to start somewhere.
Photo courtesy of Franco Bouly via Flickr.
Caroline Walker is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer and editor. She has worked in both the entertainment and the nonprofit sector. Walker holds a BA from the University of Southern California and an MA from New York University’s Gallatin School.
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