FACEBOOK BACKLASH AUSTRALIANS FLAT-OUT DO NOT TRUST FACEBOOK ANYMORE
MANY Australians are for the first time discovering just how much Facebook knows about them and many are shocked, leading them to quit the platform.
Facebook won’t say how many of its 16 million Australian users have turned their back on the under-siege platform.
But Google Trends data for Australia shows searches such as “delete facebook” are up dramatically.
Analysis of Twitter posts by Storyful shows many who are quitting have lost trust in Mark Zuckerberg’s $580 billion behemoth.
Brisbane artist Tanya Sinha deleted her Facebook account this week.
“It turns everything into mush,” Ms Sinha said.
Something “really terrible in the world” was given the same prominence on Facebook as what her niece or nephew was up to.
“It neutralises you and you are not paying attention,” Ms Sinha said.
“It’s not a positive platform anymore and you are vulnerable to psychological manipulation.”
Instead of trying to reach potential buyers of her artworks via Facebook she will instead focus on direct connections at markets and other in-person events.
Sydney app developer Craig Phillips said he deleted Facebook after downloading the data it had on him and discovering an advertiser who had his contact information as well as message threads.
Another to quit, Melbourne man Shane Diiorio said “things are out of control”.
Sydney digital marketer Li Chaoming downloaded the data Facebook had on him and discovered 69 companies had his contact information. He said he had no connection to 40.
High-profile figures who have deleted Facebook recently include actor Will Ferrell and billionaire tech titan Elon Musk, who removed the Tesla and SpaceX pages.