The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine is having some uptime issues, not due to a Rackspace outage (we know what you were thinking), but instead due to subversion from your favorite time-killer: Facebook.
The popular tool allows users of Facebook to permanently kill their profiles. It will unfriend everyone that you know, and then block you from accessing your account again. Trust me, once you push the shiny red “death” button, your profile is kaput, forever.
Sad news however, Facebook is kicking the website in the groin, by banning its IP address, killing (sorry) your ability to commit social suicide. Of course, you can just do it by hand if you wanted, but that would take days.
The service is working to get back online, but Facebook seems pretty resolute to keep as many person to person connections as possible live on the site. That makes sense: the more data Facebook has the more useful it is to its users, and thus Facebook is more profitable. I do love saying “profit” and “Facebook” in the same sentence.
Of course, Web 2.0 Suicide is a tiny minnow in the Facebook ocean. However, the quickness and severity of Facebook’s actions are plain: do not mess with our users, our products, or our ecosystem. Facebook is a giant, and to cross them will get you knocked flat on your ass.
Who else is rooting for the Suicide Machine to beat Facebook here?
This is really insane
Private sector squabble. And Facebook will win, if only because it has more resources to commit to the fight.
Oh, I completely forgot to write about this here. I’m such a scatter brain at times. You know they threatened legal action against Seppukoo? That site does the same thing.
I wrote about it on my social media blog: Oh no! Facebook Goes After Seppukoo!
It’s hilarious to me because what’s the harm? Facebook still has all their personal info and they’re more likely than not going to come back anyway.
I think the big guys ~might~ win, but if Seppukoo and The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine make enough noise, there might be some backlash.
Facebook won’t let *people* remove their accounts. All you can do is ‘deactivate’ them. There’s no way FB will let a service do it.
Each day I loathe FB just a little more.
Facebook is a giant and I respect that they became a giant by listening to their users en opening their platform for other developers. The only way people will ever turn against Facebook, is by acting like they do now.
Facebook does not own us, right? So what is the problem allowing people that want to leave FB, to delete their account in a automated way… Anyway this issue gets more attention now than it would ever had if FB had just allowed it, or better, implemented it in their website.
I think users should be allowed to remove their content in any way they choose.