#DeleteFacebook is still feeding the beast – but there are ways to overcome surveillance capitalism

Abstract

The #DeleteFacebook campaign is an emotional response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. This anger will be recorded and exploited, because again it’s encouraging people to react on Facebook or other social media. Slacktivism – where people show support for the trending #DeleteFacebook campaign but do little about it in real life – will probably feed into this surveillance capitalistic machine. While I think we ought to hold Facebook accountable, I am not sure supporting #DeleteFacebook without any further action is an effective method for sabotage. The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will become enforceable on May 25 2018, mandates the right todata portabilityin the EU. This is particularly important because it will give users choices and control that helps balance the asymmetrical relationship between them and providers at present.  This gives strong basis to command big data companies like Facebook to invest their profits in tech that enables people to transmit their data directly from one platform to another.  By mobilising data flow, we will be able to see greater mobility between different social networks. This should assuage those fears you have of leaving Facebook and losing all the information you’ve gathered on it. It should lead to a fairer economic ecosystem.