Facebook Banned the Creator of ‘Unfollow Everything’ and Sent Him a Cease and Desist Letter

A developer who produce a web browser app extension designed to help Facebook user reduce their prison term spent on the platform enjoin that the company responded by banning him and jeopardize to take legal action .

Louis Barclay says he createdUnfollow Everythingto help people enjoy Facebook more , not less . His extension , which no longer exists , tolerate users to automatically unfollow everybody on their FB account , thus extinguish thenewsfeed feature , one of the more habit-forming parts of the company ’s product . The feed , which allow for an endless barrage oftargeted advertising , is powered by follow , not admirer , so evenwithout it , user can still chatter the profiles they want to and voyage the site like normal .

The purpose of shoot down the feed , Barclay says , was to allow users to enjoy the platform in a more balanced , targeted fashion , rather than being blindly pressure into constant battle byFacebook ’s algorithm .

Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)

How did Facebook reinforce Barclay for trying to make its user experience less toxic ? Well , first it bring up him off of all of its platforms — locking him out of his Facebook and Instagram accounts . Then , it sent him a cease and desist letter of the alphabet , endanger legal action if he did n’t shut the browser app extension down . Ultimately , Barclay said he was force to do so , and Unfollow Everything no longer exists . He recently wrote about his experience inan op - male erecticle dysfunction for Slate , say :

If someone progress a tool that made Facebook less habit-forming — a tool that allowed users to benefit from Facebook ’s positive features while limiting their exposure to its negative ones — how would Facebook respond ?

I know the answer , because I built the tool , and Facebook crush it .

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Barclay imply that the problem really began when he was reach by researchers from the University of Neuchâtel , in Switzerland , who require to habituate his web internet browser extension to help oneself study Facebook users ’ happiness levels as they related to the newsfeed feature . Barclay oblige , but not long afterward the company reached out to him with their sound scourge , he tell . Facebook impeach him of breach its term of service and exact that he “ never again create a creature that interacts with Facebook or its many other services in any way , ” as he put it .

Facebook did not instantly respond to a asking for comment and we ’ll update this post when they do .

News of Barclay ’s ordeal follow as Facebook suffers through what is potentially its worst PR crisis yet . Beset by a recent whistle blower outrage that started asa series ofWall Street Journal articles and has now evolved into a full - blownCongressional brouhaha , the social media hulk is experience one hell of a tough time lately . To top things off , the company suffereda global outageearlier this week via somemassive configuration fuckup — the likes of which now seem tobe happening again , at least in certain persona of the earth . The caller credibly could ’ve banked some good will by have Barclay off the hooking but , woefully , their decision to purge him seems pretty par for the course .

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