Will Ferrell is one of the biggest celebrities to #deletefacebook. Here’s the announcement of his decision — on Facebook.
Facebook is now managing a growing exodus of users, and this one looks like the biggest yet. Earlier this week, comedic actor Will Ferrell announced his intentions to delete his Facebook account for good. But flushing away millions of followers is a lot harder than it looks.
Accordingly, here’s Ferrell’s Facebook post announcing his intentions to delete Facebook.
Ironic, yes.
But in fairness, Ferrell is just giving fair warning to Facebook users who aren’t deleting their accounts. That includes millions of followers who probably like getting updates from the comedian.
But saying goodbye to millions of followers is a tough decision, especially after years of building and maintaining a profile. That may be keeping a lot of advertisers on the network — for now. At present, only a handful of advertisers have pulled their campaigns from the social network, including Sonos, Mozilla, and Pep Boys.
Major advertising agencies have also expressed deep concern about Facebook’s privacy violations, though we’re yet to see pullouts from mega-brands like BMW, Pepsi, or Nike.
But that doesn’t mean some bigger names aren’t bailing on their accounts. Just recently, Tesla and SpaceX deleted their accounts, thanks to some prodding of Elon Musk. Playboy has also pulled out, based on privacy issues.
Separately, Mozilla has created a special browser extension to help manage off-network data capturing and cookie-tracking from the social network.
Meanwhile, Facebook is facing a torrent of criticism that keeps amplifying.
Here’s the full departure letter in text format.
Hi Friends,
I’m reaching out to let you know that in 72 hours I will be deleting my Facebook account. I am not deleting it immediately, in order to give this message enough time to get across to my fans and followers.
I have always had an aversion to social media and have primarily used it as a tool to help support our work at Funny Or Die, some of my personal projects, as well as charity causes that I am passionate about. Facebook allowed me to promote and share the work of many dedicated and talented individuals who deserved recognition.
I know I am not alone when I say that I was very disturbed to hear about Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of millions of Facebook users’ information in order to undermine our democracy and infringe on our citizens’ privacy. I was further appalled to learn that Facebook’s reaction to such a violation was to suspend the account of the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower.
In this day and age, with misinformation running rampant, it’s important that we protect the truth, as well as those who work to bring it to light. I can no longer, in good conscience, use the services of a company that allowed the spread of propaganda and directly aimed it at those most vulnerable.
I love my fans and hope to further interact with them through my comedy via the mediums of film and television.
-Will Ferrell
Why is it ironic? You tell people in case they want to go follow him on other social media.
Dumb headline. Dumb article. Dumb website.
Social media. A place where people announce to the world everything on their mind.
Social Media User: someone that gets offended that social media companies are listening to them.
I hope he’s also deleting his Twitter, Instagram; stops using search engines, and/or visiting ALL websites.
This website (DMN) uses a facebook pixel – Pixel ID: 206720393019975.
Other tracking/analytic tools are being used as well.
If you have a commercial site, you’re using all kinds of tracking, and using 3rd party APIs to get as much data about your customers/visitors as possible – most of the time to monetize users.
who cares. bye.