"Some profile info is going away soon," reads a warning sent to Facebook users who have filled in their profiles, including their religious views and affiliations. "Starting from 1 December 2022, the following info that you shared on your profile in About > Contact and basic info will be removed… Your other information will remain on your profile, along with the rest of your contact and basic info."
The warning also provides Facebook users the option to download a copy of the data before the company scrubs it completely from people's profiles.
Facebook is also deleting other fields on user profiles starting Dec. 1. These fields include "Interested in," which indicates a user's sexual orientation, "Political views" and "Address." All other information, including contact information, will remain. (Related: Meta employees, contractors fired for HIJACKING user accounts.)
A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the situation in a statement to TechCrunch.
"As part of our efforts to make Facebook easier to navigate and use, we're removing a handful of profile fields: Interested In, Religious Views, Political Views and Address," wrote the spokesperson in a statement. "We're sending notifications to people who have these fields filled out, letting them know these fields will be removed. This change doesn't affect anyone's ability to share this information about themselves anywhere else on Facebook."
Facebook is removing religious views and ‘interested in’ info from profiles from 1 December 2022 pic.twitter.com/SKjSrtwUwm
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) November 16, 2022
Spokesperson: Removal aims to help "streamline" platform
The Facebook spokesperson claimed the decision to get rid of these specific profile fields is part of an effort to streamline the platform, which currently consists of several features that are outdated. These fields, especially the "Interested In" part, helped propel Facebook to global popularity in its early days.
But Aisha Malik, writing for TechCrunch, noted that these fields are no longer present in other major social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, the latter of which is also owned by Facebook's parent company Meta.
"Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have simple bios that let users share a little bit about themselves without going into specific details, such as political or religious views," wrote Malik. "In the past, people may have been interested in filling out their profiles with additional information, but as privacy infringements have come to light, users may no longer want to share extra details about themselves online."
Thomas Germain, writing for Gizmodo, agrees and believes the changes are part of the company's attempt to make the platform more appealing to younger users.
"Facebook is working to streamline a platform that's filled with barely used features and cluttered, confusing interfaces," he wrote. "Facebook earned a poor reputation, not just for causing societal problems, but because it's just not cool anymore. Users have been leaving the platform in droves, and even Instagram, Facebook's younger and slightly hipper sibling, has seen its cache decline."
"Dialing back the ways you can update your profile is, in a way, admitting defeat," concluded Germain. "The world moved on, and Facebook once again needs to move fast if it wants to stay relevant."
This mass exodus of users has left the company in dire financial straits, causing CEO Mark Zuckerberg to lay off 11,000 employees and shifting the entire future of the company away from social media and towards the ludicrous goal of creating the "metaverse," a world created with a mix of virtual and augmented reality that is yet to become profitable for Meta.
Read more news about Facebook's recent actions at FacebookCollapse.com.
This change to Facebook comes as the company implodes following CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision to fire 11,000 of his employees. His farewell address to the employees he just axed can be seen in the video below.
This video is from the News Clips channel on Brighteon.com.
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