The Fall of Facebook ~ Group Discussion Ideas

Table of Contents

Theme :-

The year 2018 was very rough for Facebook. More and more people are leaving Facebook in the wake of data scandal & security breaches.

Reasons for the fall of Facebook :-

One of the most important reasons is ‘Cambridge Analytica data scandal’, which was exposed in March 2018.
- In 2013, Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm took personal data from people through an app on Facebook named ‘This is your Digital Life‘. They conducted a quiz to know users’ personal ideologies and mentioned that it was for academic purposes.
- Through this app they accessed personal data of not just the people who took the quiz, but also of the friends of them. In that way Cambridge Analytica accessed data of approx 8.7 crore Facebook users.
- Using this data, Cambridge Analytica developed ‘psychological profiles‘ of the affected users.
- After that, they targeted these users with tailored ads to politically influence them.
- It was alleged that Cambridge Analytica helped Trump to win the presidential elections in USA in 2016.
- For example, if someone is against gun culture in USA, he/she was shown Facebook ads like “Trump is against gun culture”. Thereby, he/she will be inclined to vote for Trump. In this way, users’ political opinions were influenced. In March 2018, whistle-blower from Cambridge Analytica exposed this scandal.
In September 2018, a security breach exposed personal data of 5 crore Facebook accounts.
People just lost interest in Facebook. At first when it was started in 2004, social networking is a bit new. There was another social networking site Orkut before Facebook. But it was Facebook which could able to attract lots of users. For years, Facebook was the biggest social networking platform. It helped in starting many social movements like Arab Spring. But now people just lost interest in the platform, partly because of the new alternatives like Instagram, Whatsapp etc.
More and more people are now choosing privacy over staying on social networking sites.
Many features of Facebook is overwhelming. While there are best news apps and best messaging apps available, Facebook is trying to be everything which is turning against to it.
Fake news, hate speeches are now common things on Facebook.
Several surveys reported that leaving Facebook improved mental health. Concentrating on the number of likes and appreciation is making people anxious.
And one of the most important reasons for the fall of Facebook is the preference it is giving for the sponsored content over the content of the connections.

What Facebook is doing :-

Amid all this criticism, Facebook announced that it is taking steps to ensure data privacy & security. It is also hiring third-party fact checking partners to curb fake news.

Conclusion :-

Considering the present situations, it seems Facebook is dying a slow death. But But it still has lots of users, so there is also a chance that Facebook will revamp its platform.

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Your Turn…

Do you think Facebook will be able to hold its grip on users again? What are your thoughts on this topic? Express your views through the comment section below. And subscribe to our blog to read answers to trending GD Topics.