Looking forward to life without Facebook

[jpanhalt]

Can one ever escape?  How did you do it?

At least 20 years ago I signed into Facebook  to keep in touch with family.  I might have actually used it once or twice and haven't signed on since.  In january, I got a notice that my account had been suspended/delisted (I don't recall the exact term) and I had to appeal within 180 days if I wanted to reactivate it.

That made me happy.  Then, every day since I get one to three emails telling me I have notifications.  There is no way to contact Facebook without an active account.  Is there any way to stop that spam?  BTW: The "Can Spam Act" probably applies.  FTC has done nothing, and an agent from my state AG told me they had to follow Facebook's rules, which require me to set-up a new, secure email.  He wasn't even embarrassed to say that.

[Andy Chee]

I don't use Facebook, but do use Facebook Messenger.

[brucehoult]

Sadly, non-technical members of my extended family do tend to use Windows and Facebook and there is very little I can do about it :-( There are some cousins who use Macs, so that's something. I don't think anyone but me uses Linux.

Twenty four years ago I set up the family@hoult.org mailing list, with about 50-60 people on it: my parents, siblings, aunts&uncles, cousins, my grandmother's brother, later on kids from the next generation. At first it was heavily used, but later there was demand for a Facebook group (which I also set up), and the mailing list has dwindled away.

I don't see any way to do without a Facebook account. But I don't put any content there. And I don't read my "feed", only a handful of individual groups I belong to.

[SiliconWizard]

Just use Matrix. There's a client for every platform.

Fun fact, at some point I was getting email notifications from FB even though I never had a FB account myself (yes, I'm an alien). At first I thought they were fake, but apparently not. I was getting them strictly on gmail. Flagging them "spam" wasn't doing anything, they just kept coming back. That eventually ended.

[m k]

Never had an account there, but still has a yahoo address.
Many accounts and addresses disappeared in between.

[tom66]

I quit Facebook over 10 years ago and haven't looked back.  I retain my account - just as a "this is me" so that people can't as easily impersonate me - but do not post on it, use it or log in to it.  I deleted most things from it, all photos and posts I could, except for the profile picture.

[NiHaoMike]

That made me happy.  Then, every day since I get one to three emails telling me I have notifications.  There is no way to contact Facebook without an active account.  Is there any way to stop that spam?

Create a rule in Thunderbird to automatically move messages from that address to the spam folder.

[jpanhalt]

I have that set in WLM.  It's still annoying to get up to 3 per day. Just six days' worth attached.  It hasn't stopped.

[nctnico]

Can one ever escape?  How did you do it?

I've added all facebook domains to my system's hosts file to point at the computer itself. Not only is my life facebook free, but I've liberated my computer from the claws of Meta as well. I noticed that even electronics distributors like Farnell have Facebook tracking pixels on their website. For what reason? It only slows those websites down...

[BrokenYugo]

Short of perhaps taking legal action against them you'll need to reactivate your account just to permanently delete it. Or at least that's what I ended up doing, worked for me.

[jpanhalt]

Short of perhaps taking legal action against them you'll need to reactivate your account just to permanently delete it. Or at least that's what I ended up doing, worked for me.

That's what I concluded.  But, I will not beg FB to activate my account so I can remove it.  In theory, since my business relationship with FB was severed by FB, any reminders, etc. that it sends count as marketing spam according to the Can Spam Act (15 U.S.C. 7701-7713) (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2022-title15/pdf/USCODE-2022-title15-chap103-sec7701.pdf).  Violations have a set fine of over $50,000 per email.  So far, that sounds great.  Now, for the fine print, only the FTC or a State's Attorney General can sue.  I have been to both, and the Ohio AG insists on playing by FB's rules.  Bottom line: It's another sounds good consumer protection law for which there was no intent to allow enforcement unless politically exigent/desirable.  That is not unusual in the US, and both political parties play that game.

I have tried to contact FB and unsubscribe (another US requirement) without an active account to no avail.  There is an "unsubscribe button," as required by our law, but that button requires you to sign in.  Like the old Windows joke, "Keyboard failure.  Press F1 to continue."

I posted here hoping someone might know how to contact FB without having a well known member here send one of his drones over Zuckerberg's house. 

[Messtechniker]

Can one ever escape?  How did you do it?

Never had to. Disliked social media right from the start.
Too much incompetent rubbish being splattered around. But that's just me.
For others it can be ideal. Keeping the family in touch, for example.

[Xena E]

Never had to. Disliked social media right from the start.

Testify!

I find emailing, text messaging, and a groups.io account set up for friends and family contacts, more than enough connectivity.

I don't need "Twofacebook" or anything similar: life's to short.

[joeqsmith]

EEVBLOG and small YT channel are about the extent of my social media.  To this day, I still have no use for a cell phone. 

[themadhippy]

Facebook is the new hotel california,You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave

[Kim Christensen]

Just set up some mail rules to auto delete any email from FarceBook.

[Halcyon]

Enjoy a big part of your life back.

[Faranight]

Luckily I've never used Shitface, Discunt, Instantgram, TikMock, WhatsCrapp and other filth like them.
I'm honestly waiting for a time they all disappear so that we can all go back to having normal lives and speak face-to-face once more.

[DavidAlfa]

Unless 1% of cases, Facebook is just useless and even toxic, people obsessed with writing silly motivacional quotes and posting pictures every now and then.

How? I wrote "Bye, I'm closing Facebook". Next day I deleted it.
Same with Instagram.
Linkedin is the same crap... But manageable by blocking pedantic users.

[newbrain]

they all disappear so that we can all go back to having normal lives and speak face-to-face once more.

Depends on your definition  of normal life.
Never had a FB account, but my normal life foresees a spouse and daughter in another country, and a son in a third one.
Friends all over.
So WA might not be as good as F2F, but it's better than the alternative.

[807]

Youtube, Twitter & Facebook are to merge. The new app will be called "You Twit Face".

p.s. Heard that joke before Musk was inspired to rename Twitter to X. 

[Bud]

My signature says it all.