Meta’s recent announcement about changing content moderation rules on its social networks is generating the expected stir and many users have reacted with rejection before this measure. The consequences, however, are not limited to complaints at the bar, the typical attitude in Spain when we don’t like something.
It seems that Zuckerberg’s decision to eliminate fact-checking, relax moderation policies, and allow more political content in the feeds is causing many users to look for alternatives and ways to close their accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
As first reported by TechCrunchthis week—especially in the last two days—Google Trends searches for terms like ‘how to delete Facebook permanently’ have reached a score of 100the highest possible level of interest. The question to the search engine ‘how to delete an Instagram account’ has also gained great popularity.
Likewise, as this medium could see, related searches such as ‘how to delete all photos from Facebook’, ‘alternative to Facebook’, ‘how to leave Facebook’, ‘how to delete a thread account’ and ‘how to delete an account’ of Instagram without logging in’ are also growing, specifically have suddenly risen more than 5,000% compared to previous periods.
Meta is on track to experience the same situation as Elon Musk’s X
Meta justified his decisions by arguing that promote freedom of expression and reduce potential biases in content moderation. However, many users and experts believe that this change opens the door to the proliferation of misinformation, hate speech and politically polarized content.
The possible exodus from Meta platforms is reminiscent of the situation that X has been experiencing (formerly Twitter) since Elon Musk acquired it and began to change norms within the social network.
Recently, X has had to face the flight of its users in search of other platforms, with the special growth of Bluesky.
During the same period mentioned above—this last week—the Google searches for ‘alternatives to Facebook’ have also spiked, as have searches for Bluesky and Mastodon.
Let us remember that Bluesky is a decentralized social network that presents itself as an alternative to Twitter, while Mastodon is a similar platform that has gained popularity in recent months.
It is still too early to know if this trend will continue in the long term.. What is clear, however, is that Meta’s decisions on content moderation have a direct impact on user trust.
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