If you, like me, live in the EU, Facebook is now entirely clamping down and forcing free users to make their personal data available for monetization.

Attempting to access any Facebook domain and perhaps also other meta products will redirect you to the following prompt with a choice between either accepting the monetization of your user data, or coughing up a region-dependent monthly subscription fee: base (for me ~10€) + an additional fee (~7€) for each additional facebook or instagram account you have.

Now, the hidden third option. At an initial glance, it seems like there is no other option but to click one of the buttons - however, certain links still work, and grant access to important pieces of functionality through your web browser.

If anyone has information to add regarding Facebook or Instagram, please do share it. I’ve only (begrudgingly) used the former up until now, but I know many others use Instagram and don’t feel like giving a single cent (nor their personal info) to Meta.

  1. https://www.facebook.com/dyi - perhaps most important of all, now is a good time to make a request to download your Facebook data. Don’t forget to switch to data for “all time” and “high quality” if you intend to permanently delete your account.

  2. https://www.facebook.com/your_information - here you can find and manage your information, but crucially also access Facebook messenger.

  3. The messenger app: Still hasn’t prompted me with anything, though I expect that will change in the not too far future.

Currently my plan is to use messenger to inform any important friends that I intend to leave FB, and where they’ll be able to reach me in the future.

    • kamenLady.English
      13•1 year ago

      Not really, like, you can’t communicate with your family. In my case, i live in Germany, but my family lives in Brazil. It’s the only thing keeping me on Facebook, until now.

      Thank God my family switched to WhatsApp for all family stuff. Since there are also family members in Colombia & USA, we have to keep a fixed online place, so we can communicate quickly.

      WhatsApp is owned, by meta, just like Instagram. So it is rather when and not if we’ll start seeing ads everywhere.

      • iAmTheTot
        10•1 year ago

        Yes, really. Your family can find any number of other ways to communicate. Facebook does not have a monopoly on international communication.

        • kamenLady.English
          5•1 year ago

          I know, but the problem is to convince everyone to use something different. 70, 60, 50 ,40, 30 year olds ( i think anyone up to 30 is much more open and used to deal with software ) a plenty, living in different countries.

          I really tried.

          • iAmTheTot
            7•1 year ago

            That’s not Facebook’s fault. You can’t say that a service is holding people hostage when the actual situation is that those people aren’t interested in trying other services.

            • @[email protected]English
              6•1 year ago

              It may not be fb’s fault directly, but they hold the keys to an enormous resource which should be properly regulated. Telling op to just make the choice ignores the structural issue at hand. It’s a bit like saying if you don’t like all the problems of your country, just emigrate. That’s everyone’s choice, but it isn’t practical as a general solution. Emigrating in a digital sense is far easier, but do we wait for these common goods to be enshittificated and reinvented or can we skip some suffering and seize control already.

              • iAmTheTot
                5•1 year ago

                Lol my guy, I have actually completed an emigration process. Comparing it to finding a different free communication service is fucking bonkers. Facebook doesn’t hold the keys to anything. If the users leave, they have nothing. Finding a replacement is practical and its not anything like emigrating to another country, holy shit.

                • @[email protected]English
                  3•1 year ago

                  My brother in Christ, finding a different service isn’t the difficultly. It’s moving everyone else. Fb holds the keys to a network of literally billions of ppl, which for many is the only feasible way of keeping in contact with their loved ones. Yes if everyone just left the enshittificated network suddenly and all went to the same place… but you need incentives, alternatives and coordination. “if everyone would just…” could solve a lot of problems, but we need to find realistic pathways to get there. Also your tone sucks, maybe open a window and let some fresh air in. I’ll do the same.

                  • iAmTheTot
                    4•1 year ago

                    moving everyone else.

                    I will direct you to the point at which you entered this convo.

                    That’s not Facebook’s fault. You can’t say that a service is holding people hostage when the actual situation is that those people aren’t interested in trying other services.

                    It is asinine to blame Facebook for checks notes your cousin’s tech illiteracy.

      • @[email protected]English
        4•1 year ago

        Not really, like, you can’t communicate with your family.

        LOL that is the fault of your family, not Meta