<story><title>Users Abandon Facebook After Cambridge Analytica Findings</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/technology/users-abandon-facebook.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ashelmire</author><text>Who do you think would give us that data? Facebook? Doubtful.&lt;p&gt;I think it&amp;#x27;s reasonable to assume that if 50k people tweeted about it, a far larger number probably took action (active tweeters are just a small subset of the population) or are at least thinking about reducing usage or deleting.&lt;p&gt;Deleting facebook has been a topic of conversation in my circle for months since I did it ~4 months ago or so. It&amp;#x27;s definitely on people&amp;#x27;s radar as far as other media seems to indicate (we&amp;#x27;ve had anti-facebook threads daily for months on HN), and my friends (mostly tech people and very active facebook users) have almost all reduced their usage significantly.</text></item><item><author>wpasc</author><text>First, I think what happened with Facebook&amp;#x2F;Cambridge Analytica is appalling. With that said, I think this article is silly and emblematic of poor technology coverage in the media.&lt;p&gt;I think it would be awesome if users really did delete their facebook accounts if they thought these actions crossed some line. But the article cites ~50,000 #deletefacebook mentions. Come on, 50k hashtag shares is evidence of &amp;quot;Users Abandon...&amp;quot;? it then proceeds to document case studies of people leaving. The article title would imply that users truly did see this action as a last straw and are leaving in droves, and it seems that is the narrative that the writer wanted to write about.&lt;p&gt;Is that truly happening though? I&amp;#x27;d love to see the data, but I don&amp;#x27;t think they will delete their accounts. Why would the writer elect to write an article fitting a narrative for which there is little data? Surely, the more interesting article would be &amp;quot;Are users deleting their accounts? Why not?&amp;quot; That I would read and find interesting.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pizza234</author><text>&amp;gt; I think it&amp;#x27;s reasonable to assume that if 50k people tweeted about it, a far larger number probably took action&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t really think it&amp;#x27;s reasonable to make any extrapolation, as there are also opposite arguments.&lt;p&gt;A brief search on the hashtag shows that most of it&amp;#x27;s typical &amp;quot;social stuff&amp;quot; - sarcastic remarks, jokes, pictures etc.&lt;p&gt;Also, I also wouldn&amp;#x27;t take what social users says as action. There&amp;#x27;s always been the meme of &amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;M GOING TO LEAVE FACEBOOK...!!!&amp;quot;, yet Facebook kept growing. Rather, I&amp;#x27;d assume it&amp;#x27;s very typical rage venting.</text></comment>
<story><title>Users Abandon Facebook After Cambridge Analytica Findings</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/technology/users-abandon-facebook.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ashelmire</author><text>Who do you think would give us that data? Facebook? Doubtful.&lt;p&gt;I think it&amp;#x27;s reasonable to assume that if 50k people tweeted about it, a far larger number probably took action (active tweeters are just a small subset of the population) or are at least thinking about reducing usage or deleting.&lt;p&gt;Deleting facebook has been a topic of conversation in my circle for months since I did it ~4 months ago or so. It&amp;#x27;s definitely on people&amp;#x27;s radar as far as other media seems to indicate (we&amp;#x27;ve had anti-facebook threads daily for months on HN), and my friends (mostly tech people and very active facebook users) have almost all reduced their usage significantly.</text></item><item><author>wpasc</author><text>First, I think what happened with Facebook&amp;#x2F;Cambridge Analytica is appalling. With that said, I think this article is silly and emblematic of poor technology coverage in the media.&lt;p&gt;I think it would be awesome if users really did delete their facebook accounts if they thought these actions crossed some line. But the article cites ~50,000 #deletefacebook mentions. Come on, 50k hashtag shares is evidence of &amp;quot;Users Abandon...&amp;quot;? it then proceeds to document case studies of people leaving. The article title would imply that users truly did see this action as a last straw and are leaving in droves, and it seems that is the narrative that the writer wanted to write about.&lt;p&gt;Is that truly happening though? I&amp;#x27;d love to see the data, but I don&amp;#x27;t think they will delete their accounts. Why would the writer elect to write an article fitting a narrative for which there is little data? Surely, the more interesting article would be &amp;quot;Are users deleting their accounts? Why not?&amp;quot; That I would read and find interesting.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>edraferi</author><text>Facebook is a public company, so this should all show up in their quarterly earnings reports.&lt;p&gt;At minimum the Cambridge Analytica scandal will have to be addressed. If users are leaving the platform, that would need to be reported too.</text></comment>