More Facebook users are switching platforms over privacy concerns

There are privacy risks associated with many popular tech products. However, Facebook is one that keeps being mentioned as putting users at risk of scams and privacy breaches. 

Issues like phantom notifications, too many adverts, scam posts, and a string of high-profile privacy breaches, are all bringing down Facebook’s popularity ratings in app stores. 

In light of this, a growing number of Facebook users are switching to alternative platforms. Facebook has been losing younger users for some time, and now this has started to extend to users from other age groups, as many people are losing interest in Facebook. 

Facebook’s popularity has been declining for several years, but this trend has accelerated since last year when Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before the U.S. Congress, telling lawmakers that the social media giant knew its apps were harming some users’ mental health and that “Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.”

Frances Haugen also claimed that “Yesterday we saw Facebook taken off the internet. I don’t know why it went down, but I know that for more than five hours, Facebook wasn’t used to deepen divides, destabilize democracies and make young girls and women feel bad about their bodies. 

The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won’t make the necessary changes because they put their astronomical profits before people.”

These claims, along with other issues like increased advertising, algorithm issues, and general privacy concerns have meant more people leaving social media, particularly Facebook. 

Although most of the alternative apps have their own problems, some users are still deciding to switch to avoid the data trap created by Facebook and other big tech companies. 

According to SmartBlogger, some alternatives to Facebook that have a better track record when it comes to privacy include WT.Social, MeWe, Mastodon, Diaspora, Minds, Vero, Ello, LinkedIn, Telegram, Reddit, Steem It, Clubhouse, and Twitch.