CNN
Facebook, the social media conglomerate is one of the world’s most popular social media giants that owns applications like Instagram and WhatsApp. It is the leading example of success wherein its acquired platform is doing better in terms of user reviews and engagement than its core application. However, the company has always been strict about its policies and restrictions on the platform, anything that comes in their way is ‘kinda’ put behind bars through the “violation of Facebook policies” reason.
Having said that, according to recent reports, Facebook has permanently banned a developer for allegedly creating an application that lets users erase all of their News Feed and start Facebook afresh. The developer says that he was served with a cease-and-desist letter from the company that permanently banned him off the technology giant’s platforms, even Instagram.
The name of this developer is Louis Barclay, a UK-based developer of the browser extension named “Unfollow Everything”. As mentioned in a report by Business Insider, this application allows users to unfollow all of their friends on Facebook, and erasing all of their News Feed, leaving it blank for the users to start with a fresh Facebook experience. Barclay confirmed that users could still connect with their friends and do everything that they normally can on Facebook, it is just if they want to begin Facebook like it’s new.
Barclay recently got banned but the extension was live on the Google Chrome store since July 2020. It was not a huge app in terms of following, but Barclay says that it was definitely growing in number. He further points out that the application caught the attention of researchers at the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland, who wanted to study the impact of having no News Feed on users’ satisfaction and happiness on Facebook, including the amount of time they spent on the platform.
Well, guess the experiments must have stopped after this alleged ban from the company itself. The letter from the social media conglomerate mentions to Barclay that his application broke the company’s rules on automated collection of user data without having Facebook’s permission that violated the company’s policies.
In addition to this Facebook also said that Unfollow Everything interfered with the intended operations of the platform and that it also encourages other users to violate its policies. This is the reason why the company has permanently banned Barclay from Instagram and Facebook, both.
