WEBVTT 00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:03.889 hi my name is Nick Briz and I'm a new-media artist / educator / organizer 00:00:03.889 --> 00:00:06.920 living and working in Chicago Illinois 00:00:06.920 --> 00:00:09.969 and this is a tutorial / personal essay 00:00:09.969 --> 00:00:13.040 video for how to leave Facebook by which I don't mean 00:00:13.040 --> 00:00:16.320 had a click that delete your account button, which doesn't exactly 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:19.369 delete your account anyways, Facebook uses words like "delete" and 00:00:19.369 --> 00:00:22.660 "like" to mean things that they don't actually this is a tutorial / essay 00:00:22.660 --> 00:00:25.939 video for how to leave Facebook, in a sort of 00:00:25.939 --> 00:00:29.289 performative / activist and slightly glitchy-kludgy sort of way. 00:00:29.289 --> 00:00:32.870 before I explain how to do that I'll explane 00:00:32.870 --> 00:00:37.040 why, and why like this. I should start by saying that this was a 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:37.730 really really hard thing for me to do 00:00:37.730 --> 00:00:40.750 by which i don't mean technically, it was just personally difficult 00:00:40.750 --> 00:00:44.750 i've been on Facebook for seven years. Its as long as I've been making glitch art as long as it's been 00:00:44.750 --> 00:00:47.460 a new-media artist and facebook's been a big part of my life 00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:51.129 and practice in a lot of different ways over that time 00:00:51.129 --> 00:00:55.039 and on those folks who think Facebook is an addiction nor do I agree with the 00:00:55.039 --> 00:00:57.219 social media luddites that think social media 00:00:57.219 --> 00:01:00.910 is distracting us from "real life". social media doesn't replace a pre-existing 00:01:00.910 --> 00:01:02.600 relationship it augments them 00:01:02.600 --> 00:01:06.880 it helps keep in touch when we are far away and lets us communicate not only in real time 00:01:06.880 --> 00:01:10.310 but also with images and sounds and videos and gifs 00:01:10.310 --> 00:01:13.119 social media and web in general make possible relationships that otherwise 00:01:13.119 --> 00:01:14.460 wouldn't exist 00:01:14.460 --> 00:01:18.210 in 1968 one of the Internet's founding fathers to see our look later 00:01:18.210 --> 00:01:21.640 said with a great deal of for site, "life will be happier for the online 00:01:21.640 --> 00:01:22.520 individual 00:01:22.520 --> 00:01:25.670 because the people with whom one interacts most strongly will be selected 00:01:25.670 --> 00:01:27.759 more by commonality of interests and goals 00:01:27.759 --> 00:01:31.990 then by accidents of proximity" My issue with Facebook is how they've demonstrated time and 00:01:31.990 --> 00:01:32.650 time again 00:01:32.650 --> 00:01:35.780 a lack of respect for their users in the interest of prioritizing 00:01:35.780 --> 00:01:39.130 other interests like those in their advertises in ways that have had some 00:01:39.130 --> 00:01:40.750 serious intended and possibly 00:01:40.750 --> 00:01:44.799 unintended consequences. And this is a long list which has been accumulating for years 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:49.170 but I'd always love the major ones. first issue is something called the filter bubble 00:01:49.170 --> 00:01:52.520 to some extent you probably expect your streams to be the accumulation 00:01:52.520 --> 00:01:56.420 of all the posts made by the folks you follow in more or less the order they 00:01:56.420 --> 00:01:57.149 were posted in 00:01:57.149 --> 00:02:01.829 this is not always the case and is definitely not the case for Facebook. By default 00:02:01.829 --> 00:02:04.770 Facebook filters a lot into and out of your streams based on what 00:02:04.770 --> 00:02:08.739 algorithms think you most likely want to see. And common sense says 00:02:08.739 --> 00:02:12.250 "awesome why wouldn't I wanna catered stream if the algorithms are working 00:02:12.250 --> 00:02:12.610 well 00:02:12.610 --> 00:02:16.890 then wouldn't i like it?" Not exactly the first problem with common sense here 00:02:16.890 --> 00:02:20.930 is that it makes the assumption that the algorithm has your best interest 00:02:20.930 --> 00:02:24.370 in mind... which is not the case, more on that later 00:02:24.370 --> 00:02:28.540 and so then there's this issue the filter bubble if your algorithm assumes your future 00:02:28.540 --> 00:02:29.770 interest based on your 00:02:29.770 --> 00:02:33.620 past activity you're setting yourself up for what Eli Pariser calls 00:02:33.620 --> 00:02:37.489 "information determinism", essentially your feed becomes a kind 00:02:37.489 --> 00:02:41.180 ideological bubble that never shows you anything you disagree with or don't 00:02:41.180 --> 00:02:41.940 already like 00:02:41.940 --> 00:02:45.610 and so then it doesn't give you the opportunity to change your mind to consider other points of view 00:02:45.610 --> 00:02:46.000 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:49.550 to learn to change to grow. this can get a little heady and I'm oversimplifying 00:02:49.550 --> 00:02:49.930 here 00:02:49.930 --> 00:02:53.340 but you can check out Eli Pariser's TED talk or some of the links I posted in the description 00:02:53.340 --> 00:02:56.090 and I should note that this isn't unique to Facebook to some extent this is true 00:02:56.090 --> 00:02:59.629 of any account you open online. Another big example is your Google search results, this 00:02:59.629 --> 00:03:03.060 is why use use Duck Duck Go more than anything. the second issue 00:03:03.060 --> 00:03:07.030 is that Facebook impersonates you to benefit of its advertisers 00:03:07.030 --> 00:03:10.530 have you ever been scrolling through your feed and noticed something like "Nick Briz and 7 of your 00:03:10.530 --> 00:03:12.560 friends likes McDonald's" and wondered 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:15.659 "hmmm that's weird I thought Nick was a vegetarian what's he doing like 00:03:15.659 --> 00:03:16.510 McDonalds?" 00:03:16.510 --> 00:03:20.060 somebody makes a post on Facebook with the link and you like their post 00:03:20.060 --> 00:03:23.200 Facebook then assumes you like what the post links to 00:03:23.200 --> 00:03:26.629 so if somebody makes a post about how nasty the new McRib sandwich is 00:03:26.629 --> 00:03:30.200 and they link to McDonalds and you like that post your friend's 00:03:30.200 --> 00:03:33.720 feed, unbeknownst to you, will now include your endorsement 00:03:33.720 --> 00:03:37.379 of McDonalds. Similarly, if you like something from a particular source on 00:03:37.379 --> 00:03:40.250 Facebook, Facebook will assume you like any future posts 00:03:40.250 --> 00:03:43.610 from that source, so say you liked a New York Times op-ed 00:03:43.610 --> 00:03:46.909 on legalizing marijuana you may unbeknownst to you 00:03:46.909 --> 00:03:51.069 like another New York Times op-ed on criminalizing abortion 00:03:51.069 --> 00:03:54.830 or whatever, this is why sometimes you might notice deceased friend liking things 00:03:54.830 --> 00:03:58.599 after the died. Maybe even worse the recycled "likes" is the very blurry space 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:01.159 between organic and non-organic posts on Facebook 00:04:01.159 --> 00:04:04.519 if you're unfamiliar with these terms organic just means a post that one of your 00:04:04.519 --> 00:04:05.379 friends makes 00:04:05.379 --> 00:04:09.709 and non-organic is something that's paid for like an ad. So, say you make an organic post 00:04:09.709 --> 00:04:10.950 about how much you like your iPhone 00:04:10.950 --> 00:04:14.569 Facebook could then sell that post to Apple so they can use it as an ad 00:04:14.569 --> 00:04:18.029 and your friends will notice that post in their feeds sort of get anchored to the top 00:04:18.029 --> 00:04:19.168 like a sponsored post 00:04:19.168 --> 00:04:22.720 and maybe you're cool with this and maybe you're not, but the point is 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:25.770 that it doesn't matter because nobody asked for your permission nobody bothered 00:04:25.770 --> 00:04:26.580 to tell you about it... 00:04:26.580 --> 00:04:30.130 ...or they didn't bother to tell you about it when they told you they change their 00:04:30.130 --> 00:04:33.060 terms of service and the technically did ask your permission when you signed the 00:04:33.060 --> 00:04:34.190 9000+ word 00:04:34.190 --> 00:04:37.690 Terms of Service. And if you're the kind of influencer that charges companies to 00:04:37.690 --> 00:04:39.229 make promotional posts 00:04:39.229 --> 00:04:42.470 Facebook just cut you out of that equation. And even if you're not in the 00:04:42.470 --> 00:04:44.430 business of making promotional posts 00:04:44.430 --> 00:04:48.460 I think if somebody's using your posts as an ad, you should be getting a cut 00:04:48.460 --> 00:04:49.000 of that 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:52.860 and i'm not just trying to be greedy here, there's some pretty long-term consequences with this 00:04:52.860 --> 00:04:55.919 there's a reeally great book called "Who Owns the Future" by Jaron Lanier where he 00:04:55.919 --> 00:04:57.310 describes this in detail 00:04:57.310 --> 00:05:00.430 and he also describes what a micropayment system could look like 00:05:00.430 --> 00:05:05.680 where users get compensated for the wealth that the generate on social media 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:09.150 which up until now doesn't really exist... YouTube and 00:05:09.150 --> 00:05:13.100 and Google Adsense maybe being the kind of exception which brings me to my last issue 00:05:13.100 --> 00:05:13.690 00:05:13.690 --> 00:05:17.880 Facebook implements these things in a really sneaky way. And if we noticed and 00:05:17.880 --> 00:05:21.250 if we backlash than they post an apology after the fact 00:05:21.250 --> 00:05:25.270 and retrofit their site with a sort of "opt out" option. But this is never the default 00:05:25.270 --> 00:05:28.330 and they never want to opt out and these changes are made in such a way as to 00:05:28.330 --> 00:05:29.509 keep us in the dark 00:05:29.509 --> 00:05:32.720 and sometimes years can go by before anybody even noticed face but fucked with us 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:33.050 00:05:33.050 --> 00:05:36.100 and one of the worst examples at this came out recently here's a quote from the Atlantic 00:05:36.100 --> 00:05:37.350 00:05:37.350 --> 00:05:41.930 "for one week in January 2012 data scientists skewed what almost 700,000 00:05:41.930 --> 00:05:46.240 Facebook uses saw when they logged into its service. some people were shown content 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:47.240 with the preponderance 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:52.070 happy and positive words. some were shown content analyzed as sadder than average 00:05:52.070 --> 00:05:55.319 and when the week was over these manipulated uses were more likely to post 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:55.650 00:05:55.650 --> 00:05:59.210 either especially positive or negative words themselves 00:05:59.210 --> 00:06:02.229 this tinkering was just revealed as part of a new study published 00:06:02.229 --> 00:06:06.030 in the prestigious proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" 00:06:06.030 --> 00:06:09.120 in short, facebook just wanted to see if they could control the emotional states of their 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:09.910 massive network of 00:06:09.910 --> 00:06:13.419 guinea pigs. and it turns out they can for a week in 2012 00:06:13.419 --> 00:06:16.460 hundreds of thousands of us were made depressed and hundreds of thousands 00:06:16.460 --> 00:06:20.500 of us were made happy. high-fives data scientists 00:06:20.500 --> 00:06:24.190 what's next? so I'll admit have some pretty radical ideas about what I would 00:06:24.190 --> 00:06:25.520 like the web to look like 00:06:25.520 --> 00:06:29.190 and I realize a lot this isn't happening anytime soon. but I do appreciate 00:06:29.190 --> 00:06:32.800 all the awesome shit we have now so I partake in internet culture 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:36.630 but there's a balance that needs to be met and a line that needs to be drawn 00:06:36.630 --> 00:06:40.300 and it really sucks and it pains me to say that Facebook crossed it 00:06:40.300 --> 00:06:44.350 now I have to leave and this is how I did that. So facebook gives you the option to 00:06:44.350 --> 00:06:45.850 deactivate your account or even 00:06:45.850 --> 00:06:49.460 "delete your account", but keep in mind anytime you upload anything to the Internet 00:06:49.460 --> 00:06:50.050 00:06:50.050 --> 00:06:53.120 it's being copied over and over again it's been crawled is being scraped 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:56.810 when something goes online, its virtually impossible to delete 00:06:56.810 --> 00:07:00.569 so when facebook gives you the option to "delete your account" this is a relative term 00:07:00.569 --> 00:07:03.949 also with something as ubiquitous as Facebook deleting or deactivating your 00:07:03.949 --> 00:07:04.699 account means 00:07:04.699 --> 00:07:07.740 much more than just losing your feed and your information 00:07:07.740 --> 00:07:10.990 it means losing all of my albums, it means losing 00:07:10.990 --> 00:07:14.580 all of my Spotify playlist, it also throws a wrench in a lot of the work 00:07:14.580 --> 00:07:15.240 that I do 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:18.849 as a new-media artist I produce a lot of work for myself and for clients 00:07:18.849 --> 00:07:22.229 that involves Facebook apps and Facebook Graph so I thought about this for a while 00:07:22.229 --> 00:07:22.819 00:07:22.819 --> 00:07:26.000 and decided I wouldn't press the "delete my account" button 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:29.169 that instead I'd leave Facebook on my own terms 00:07:29.169 --> 00:07:32.770 by manually deleting all of my photos, posts, comments, likes 00:07:32.770 --> 00:07:35.900 by un-tagging myself from everything by leaving all my groups, etc. 00:07:35.900 --> 00:07:40.180 essentially manually wiping out all of my activity on Facebook 00:07:40.180 --> 00:07:43.400 or at least scraping it off the surface. And I've already done all that 00:07:43.400 --> 00:07:46.580 with the exception unfriending my friends which I'm gonna do in a few days 00:07:46.580 --> 00:07:49.330 before i show you how to do this you should probably backup anything that's 00:07:49.330 --> 00:07:52.099 important to you on facebook. if you're like me you probably got a lot of 00:07:52.099 --> 00:07:53.449 sentimental moments on there 00:07:53.449 --> 00:07:56.819 so if you go to your settings Facebook actually gives you an option to 00:07:56.819 --> 00:08:00.199 download a copy of your facebook data and you should do this, but in my opinion 00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:01.509 thiss actually leaves out 00:08:01.509 --> 00:08:04.970 a lot of other important things. So while this download includes all the photos 00:08:04.970 --> 00:08:08.509 you've posted to Facebook it doesn't include all the photos photos your friends have 00:08:08.509 --> 00:08:10.389 posted, and then tagged you in 00:08:10.389 --> 00:08:14.180 Which for me was what initially motivated me to get on facebook 00:08:14.180 --> 00:08:18.330 and what makes up the majority of my photo history over the last seven years 00:08:18.330 --> 00:08:21.479 at this point in time Facebook has no easy way to download all the photos you're 00:08:21.479 --> 00:08:22.360 tagged in 00:08:22.360 --> 00:08:25.360 so i wrote a custom script is to get that done. 00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:29.520 So big disclaimer here, this script and all the other scripts i wrote and i'm gonna share with you in 00:08:29.520 --> 00:08:30.340 this video 00:08:30.340 --> 00:08:33.409 is a sort of brute force hack, its really dirty 00:08:33.409 --> 00:08:36.529 and might take some experimentation. that's just the style of this here tutorial 00:08:36.529 --> 00:08:39.349 as the result the circumstances Facebook has placed me in 00:08:39.349 --> 00:08:42.729 also keep in mind that facebook changes shit all the time with no notice 00:08:42.729 --> 00:08:46.600 But I've posted all of these on github as gists, so you can fork them 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:50.589 and make any changes if and when they're necessary. So after you download a copy your 00:08:50.589 --> 00:08:53.890 data, go ahead and watch this video were i kinda go through step by step 00:08:53.890 --> 00:08:57.120 how to hack your way to saving a copy of all the photos that your tagged in 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:01.230 another thing i'm gonna miss is all of my wall posts. there's a lot of really sentimental stuff 00:09:01.230 --> 00:09:05.080 people have posted on there, like birthday wishes and other personal things. So I made this 00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:08.959 other video for had a download a copy of your entire wall 00:09:08.959 --> 00:09:13.570 so after I saved all the stuff that I wanted to save I started wiping out all my activity 00:09:13.570 --> 00:09:18.120 i started with some of the stuff that Facebook makes easy for you to manually remove 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:22.370 like I removed all of my information from my About section 00:09:22.370 --> 00:09:25.370 I also manually removed 00:09:25.370 --> 00:09:28.529 all of the app's except for some the ones that are connected to other things 00:09:28.529 --> 00:09:29.730 like Spotify 00:09:29.730 --> 00:09:33.490 and some of my client apps. then comes the trickier part 00:09:33.490 --> 00:09:37.010 I want to delete all of my photos but I also wanted to untag myself from all the 00:09:37.010 --> 00:09:38.620 photos my friends have posted 00:09:38.620 --> 00:09:41.649 and Facebook doesn't really give you a quick easy way to do this 00:09:41.649 --> 00:09:46.380 so I also wrote a few custom scripts to get that done which are on the website 00:09:46.380 --> 00:09:50.320 and also on this video where I walk through step by step how to do that 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:54.850 I also wrote a script for quickly leaving all of your groups. Also documented on the site 00:09:54.850 --> 00:09:58.310 and in this video. And lastly a script for deleting all of my activity 00:09:58.310 --> 00:10:01.550 that means comments, likes, search results, stuff like that 00:10:01.550 --> 00:10:05.529 the video on the site also includes some tips for how to do is a bit more 00:10:05.529 --> 00:10:08.540 effectively remember that this is all kind of experimental 00:10:08.540 --> 00:10:11.870 I notice that if I tried to delete years worth of activity at once 00:10:11.870 --> 00:10:15.329 it would crash my browser and not work, but it worked ok if I did 00:10:15.329 --> 00:10:19.480 a few months at a time. Which is still a lot easier than going through it 00:10:19.480 --> 00:10:20.360 one by one 00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:23.850 although admittedly just as sad. So to recap 00:10:23.850 --> 00:10:27.390 facebook gives you a couple different ways to delete your account, this is NOT 00:10:27.390 --> 00:10:31.120 one of them. This is an alternative based on a different set of priorities 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:34.149 like i said before, this is meant to be kind of performative 00:10:34.149 --> 00:10:37.779 activist and some what cathartic process. As a right now 00:10:37.779 --> 00:10:41.329 all but my friends list and this post have been removed 00:10:41.329 --> 00:10:44.920 and in a few days I'll be unfriending everyone leaving only 00:10:44.920 --> 00:10:48.700 this post on my Facebook account 00:10:48.700 --> 00:10:52.720 its sad. I'm afraid of losing touch with friends, i'm afraid of missing out 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:55.829 on future activities and posts on Facebook 00:10:55.829 --> 00:10:59.649 but I hope you all will find me elsewhere on the internets as I hope to find you 00:10:59.649 --> 00:11:01.450 I've got other accounts, f*ck Facebook