Opinion articles present diverse opinions and do not represent the position of “WEB3+”
This article is written from the author’s first-person perspective.
The “Meta Crisis”: When Your Digital Efforts Evaporate Overnight
Yesterday, “Meta” unexpectedly became a reporting area for the consequences of account suspensions.
Background: Recently, Meta has been cracking down on accounts with “unannounced suspensions.” Many verified KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) have seen years of hard work disappear overnight, with over 3,000 victims forming a self-help group. Recently, three editors from Meta Publishing were suspended at the same time and have yet to find assistance. (Editor’s note: Two of them have restored their accounts as of August 2.)
During this process, friends on social media focused on two questions:
- How can permanently suspended accounts be restored?
- How can accounts that have not yet been suspended be backed up?
The former pertains to remedial measures (rights protection), while the latter involves being prepared for potential risks (prevention), as one can never know when it might be their turn.
The Facebook accounts of the three editors from Meta Publishing remain helplessly suspended. Additionally, there is one survivor; the fourth editor still has an active Facebook account. However, he is in a state of panic, discussing with me via Messenger how to back up the years of data left on Facebook. Of course, Facebook allows users to download copies of their personal information, including posts, photos, videos, etc. However, I find it somewhat cumbersome. Two years ago, I hired a student (actually, a friend who was unemployed) to help me manually scrape the content and convert it into Markdown format, allowing my writings to be easily revived on my personal website at any time. (Though I still haven’t finished setting up my personal website…)
If a phone number can be taken along, why can’t Facebook posts?
What constitutes a “good social media account backup method” is a question that has been discussed internationally for a long time. After all, platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter are not in the business of making money through data backup; they might prefer that your data remains with them. Rather than lacking effective backup tools, it appears they intentionally raise the barriers to transferring data out. This is not just my opinion; this has been a topic of heated debate for years.
At this point, it is appropriate to introduce the concept of “data portability.” This means that any content I publish on any social platform should be transportable to any place I want, just like a “mobile phone number” can be ported to any telecom company.
Further Reading: Number Portability Service
Phone number portability was not available from the start; it was only mandated after the “Telecommunications Number Portability Management Regulations” were enacted in 2003, allowing number transfers.
Telecom companies won’t voluntarily offer NP services, as losing customers is not something they want to pursue. Therefore, the government played a role, amending telecommunications laws and regulations to enhance “user autonomy” and “promote competition in the telecom market,” which indeed allowed many smaller telecom operators to successfully enable users to carry over their numbers. (Though twenty years later, Taiwan is left with only three major telecom providers.)
In the online world, people have the freedom to migrate, and it stands to reason that the content they create should also have that freedom.
From Utah to the Federal Universe: Seeing the Dawn of Digital Freedom
Just two weeks ago, au told me that the state of Utah in the U.S. passed the “Digital Choice Act” this year, aimed at reshaping social media to give users more choices and control, essentially addressing the issue that the fourth Meta editor is struggling with.
This bill received bipartisan support.
The essence of the act is “data portability” and “data interoperability.”
Further Reading: Data Portability
The former not only mandates that major platforms must provide download services for users’ posts and media but also requires that “likes, shares, and comments” be downloadable, as these data points are part of the social graph (metadata). The latter means that data should be easily transferable to another platform, just as emails can be moved from Gmail to Outlook or a mobile number can be transferred from Chunghwa Telecom to Taiwan Mobile.
Currently, there are already several related open standards in social platforms. Even within the Facebook universe, Threads has established connectivity with the Fediverse standards, allowing for “data interoperability” with other platforms using the ActivityPub standard. For instance, I can use my “Tsu,” to view tweets on the g0v social platform.
What Does Audrey Tang Think?
Don’t wait to act until faced with suspension; Taiwan needs its own “Digital Choice Act.”
We do not know when Taiwan will have related legislation on “data portability,” as platforms will not voluntarily provide sufficiently robust services, just as they will not make a concerted effort to “combat fraud,” unless mandated by law. If fraud can be legislated against, can data portability be too? Utah has already demonstrated that it is indeed possible.
However, in Taiwan, digital-related legislation has always been a hot potato. At this moment, if we can pay more attention to these issues (it is said that those suspended by Facebook are planning to organize a street protest), perhaps the pace of “adults” can be sped up. One day, we will no longer have to worry about the question of “how to back up accounts that have not yet been suspended.”