Thread by @allenf32

so I'm currently spending my nights and weekends on a site that provides specific Edinburgh-based information and services on the #COVID19 outbreak.

here's a little thread about how @Facebook is running interference for the virus in the name of surveillance capitalism.

🧵/n

I deleted facebook a little over a year ago, and instagram too, when I convinced myself that they were poisonous for society. @shoshanazuboff, @evgenymorozov, Jaron Lanier, the usual stuff.

I wrote about it here to try to nudge others on the fence.

medium.com/@allenfarringt…

2/n

I was never going to be a dick and force anybody else to do the same. I wanted people to make the same decisions as me because they had gone through the same thought process.

but I did get used to @telegram, @signalapp, @DuckDuckGo - again, the usual stuff.

3/n

unfortunately, in trying to set up this service, I have needed access to facebook to coordinate with other volunteers who have no other social media profiles, to find local resources and groups to point people towards from the site itself, and more.

4/n

that's fine, I thought. this is more important than my intellectual crusade. I will make a profile, I will get to work.

it was going fine, until I discovered just now that facebook has locked me out my new account.

5/n

I can guarantee I broke no bullshit "terms of service" given all I did was create a page for our site, join a group we want to point people towards, and messaged a grand total of 3 other volunteers I had never met in real life and had no other way to communicate with.

6/n

but what has happened since I tried to log back in has given me a strong idea.

I needed to send an SMS to my phone to "confirm my identity"

i.e. so they know my phone number.

I did that.

7/n

I needed to add an extra email to "confirm my identity"

i.e. so they can build a web profile for their pixels.

I did that.

8/n

I needed to add a new profile picture of my actual face instead of Rocky the Squirrel.

i.e. so they can sell me to Clearview AI.

I refused to do this because it cannot be undone.

9/n

I am now locked out of my account, "pending review".

there was no suspicious activity because there was no activity. zero. none.

there was only a refusal to comply with surveillance capitalism.

10/n

and now I am going to seriously struggle to effectively volunteer my time to try to help people in my community.

to be completely clear, this is not a major disaster. nobody will get hurt because of this. but it will waste hours while we try to coordinate around it.

11/n

Facebook wants to bring the world together.

sure.

on their terms. not on ours.

Facebook can go f*** itself.

[end]

p.s. no soundcloud, but I forgot I could easily have plugged an article I wrote on this in July.

I realise now I was too focused on how great everything could get, and not nearly enough on how bad everything currently is.

areomagazine.com/2019/07/31/tow…