The world’s largest social network has permanently banned user Louis Barclay for creating a browser extension that allows you to unsubscribe from all friends, groups and pages in one click. An extension called Unfollow Everything hit the Chrome Store last year, after which Mark Zuckerberg’s company demanded it be removed.
“This summer Facebook sent me an email threatening legal action. The company permanently disabled my Facebook and Instagram accounts and demanded that I agree never again to create tools that are directly related to Facebook or other services of the company, ”the developer wrote.
The idea to unsubscribe from everything came to Louis Barclay a few years ago, when he realized that an endless news feed was not really needed. If you cancel all subscriptions, it will be empty, but the user will still be able to view friends’ profiles and other pages. This makes it possible to use Facebook without a feed and better control your actions on the social network. It took the developer several hours to unsubscribe from everything manually, so he decided to create a tool that simplifies this process.
“I still remember the feeling when I first unsubscribed from everything. I was no longer tempted to scroll through the endless content feed. The amount of time I spent on social media dropped dramatically. Overnight my addiction to Facebook became manageable, ”said Louis Barclay.
A few months after the extension was published, Swiss scientists from the University of Neuchâtel became interested in it. They suggested using Unfollow Everything to study the impact of the news feed on the amount of time spent on Facebook, as well as the platform in general, on people’s lives. The company threatened to sue, and Barclay feared huge legal costs if he lost. He didn’t risk it and removed his extension. Despite this, his Facebook and Instagram accounts were blocked.
The developer believes that its expansion is depriving Facebook of its main source of income. As you know, a news feed is an endless page, and the longer the user scrolls through it, the more ads they view. It is she who makes users spend hours on the social network and brings billions of dollars to Facebook.
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