#DeleteFacebook Diary: The Long Divorce, Part Five

Today I realized that Facebook hates its competition so much that it censors it. As far as I remember, Twitter allows Facebook and even Gab to write posts in order to promote external links which redirect to their platform. But in the case of Mark Zuckerberg’s website, the approach is selfish and monopolistic.

I’ve tried to reduce the time required to contact all of my Facebook friends by posting a new profile picture (which usually is the most visible kind of activity you can have on the platform) whose description announces that I’d delete the account on Christmas day. A few days later when I checked the account, I realized that the picture had been removed.

Now it's easy to make accusations, but there are only two possible scenarios:
A. Somebody reported my picture and Facebook support has removed it.
B. Given the presence of external links on the description, the Facebook filters have automatically deleted the picture.

Since I've never received any kind of notification or message in order to announce the deletion of the picture, I lean towards scenario B. When Facebook support intervenes, you're told about your offensive or rule-infringing activity and sometimes they ban you from the network for a determined amount of days. In my case, this didn't happen.

Now I'm not really sure if Facebook removed my profile picture because it contained external links to Steemit or because I've directly announced the deletion of the account. The latter case is even more striking, as it's an infringement of free speech and a way to effectively filter any "rebellious" behavior which argues why Facebook is abusive. It would turn the platform into the equivalent of a totalitarian regime, as content disappears without notice, as if it never existed in the first place. I resent this type of revisionism and the actions of Facebook have made me further realize that I want to delete my account.

What I know for certain is that:

A. I did post that profile picture with the description.
B. It was removed without notice in between my logins.
C. I regret not taking a screenshot, but then again this never happened to me.
D. This arbitrary intervention has made me even more convinced that I want to leave Facebook.
E. Not being able to send this type of general announcement my slow down my proceedings, as I have to message every friend individually AND try not to infringe the platform's spam policy.