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Facebook To Remove Several Information Fields From Profiles, Including Religious and Political Views (engadget.com) 55

Meta has confirmed that it's removing addresses, "interested in", political views and religion from Facebook profiles as of December 1st. Engadget reports: The move is meant to make Facebook "easier to navigate and use," a spokesperson told TechCrunch. If you've filled out any of these fields, you'll get a notification about the change. Other details you provide, such as your contact information and relationship status, will persist. You can download a copy of your Facebook data before December 1st if you're determined to preserve it, and you still have control over who can see the remaining profile content.
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Facebook To Remove Several Information Fields From Profiles, Including Religious and Political Views

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  • Rest assured that you will no longer have to suffer the trauma of finding out that someone out there on the internet is *wrong!*

    • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Thursday November 17, 2022 @11:22PM (#63060130)

      If they're on Facebook, you don't need much more information than that to form an opinion of the person.

      • If they're on Facebook, you don't need much more information than that to form an opinion of the person.

        Give that database another decade or two, and the only thing people will wonder about is how many of those persons, are actually dead.

        Of course, by then it will be ripe for American voter registrations...

      • by syn3rg ( 530741 )
        I set my religion to "systemd is wrong", and my Political Affiliation to "vi".
    • Rest assured that you will no longer have to suffer the trauma of finding out that someone out there on the internet is *wrong!*

      Actually, the thing with Facebook is that generally you're associating with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. Usually, you know where your family and current friends fall politically (and sometimes just agree to disagree), but sometimes it's helpful to know in advance if you're planning on sending a friend request to an old friend from back-in-the-day, and their Facebook feed happens to be nothing but stuff you find to be politically inflammatory.

      I actually had that happen a few years ago. W

      • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

        I actually had that happen a few years ago. Wanted to reconnect with an old friend I used to lan game with. Turns out he was a huge supporter of the former president, and not sending a friend request in the first place just seemed easier than adding someone I knew I'd be immediately unfollowing (and also probably having to tell him "You might want to unfollow me too, because I have a dog in this fight and don't pull my punches.").

        So, what you are really saying is you let your hatred for a former political figure dictate who you will be friends with? Yes, I agree with your choice. He is probably better off without a shallow friend such as yourself who lets his TDS dictate who is important in his live.

        • So, what you are really saying is you let your hatred for a former political figure dictate who you will be friends with?

          No, what I'm really saying is that Facebook is designed to let you follow the postings of people in your online social circle (which they refer to as "friends", but, as I already said, that can obviously include people who are not friends by the traditional definition of the word), and I don't see the point in adding someone I'm just going to immediately unfollow because they primarily post politically inflammatory content. It also should've been pretty obvious I wouldn't be reconnecting through Facebook w

          • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

            No, that is what you think you are saying. What you are actually doing is justifying your own narrow mindedness and prejudice. But whatever helps you sleep at night.

            Besides, you said this was a friend that you used to game with. As a fellow gamer, tabletop not video, I got very close to my gamer friends. So, I do know the difference between real friends and facebook friends. Basically, you tossed away a former friend because of something that really didn't matter.

            • The friendship ended when they moved out of state and we lost contact. The fact that I mentioned LAN gaming (and I'm talking the IPX protocol days) is a clue that this was a lifetime ago. Yeah, we used to have gaming in common but I'm more of a filthy casual these days, and from what I saw of his Facebook posts, his primary interest is now right-wing politics.

              Friendships require mutuality and people do change. That's life.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday November 17, 2022 @09:23PM (#63059962)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by znrt ( 2424692 )

      ahem, pardon me but ... what part of "easier to navigate and use" do you not understand? sheesh!

    • They are going to remove it from public view. You can rest assured the data will still be in the database and be available for targeting advertisements.

      Good, why in real life don't we wear "Mormon, Libertarian" badges in public? Not because it's secret, because it's cliquey and weird.

      - toastermonkey vim MacOS Ruby Walmart Chevy

      That's a very unhealthy way to social. But I get why dumbasses will do it. This is a case where people need to be saved from themselves.

      • Good, why in real life don't we wear "Mormon, Libertarian" badges in public?

        I've seen people wear their preferred pronoun badges in public. To be honest, I'd figure it probably saves them the grief of having to deal with assholes who hate the idea of pronoun badges, so win-win.

        • Good, why in real life don't we wear "Mormon, Libertarian" badges in public?

          I've seen people wear their preferred pronoun badges in public. To be honest, I'd figure it probably saves them the grief of having to deal with assholes who hate the idea of pronoun badges, so win-win.

          So, we can blame the Internet for very many bad social ideas, let's go with that.

    • They are going to remove it from public view. You can rest assured the data will still be in the database and be available for targeting advertisements.

      Even if you don't provide your political views to Facebook, they attempt to infer it based on the circle of friends you have. I received a lot of, shall we say, poorly targeted ads during the 2016 election cycle, thanks to family members with opposing political views.

    • Of course. And the now-hidden fields will be there and auto-filled for new accounts as interactive behaviour identifies the answers, and accounts who didn't provide the info.

      Unless MZ states explicitly that the info will be erased, it absolutely won't be.

  • Good (Score:5, Funny)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Thursday November 17, 2022 @10:00PM (#63060026)

    Now delete the content too.

  • They should turn the gender selection menu into a slider.

    • Gender is an antiquated concept anyway. I say we get rid of entirely. No more he's, no more she's, no more they's. NO MORE BLOODY PRONOUNS. AGENDER FOR ALL.
      • Sweden [wikipedia.org] did it.

        And Finland didn't have the problem in the first place.

        • Sweden is showing more differentiation in career choice and lifestyle, based on gender, than other Western nations. The result is fascinating. Given very consistent opportunities, women and men are making very different life choices. It's a fascinating result.

                      https://www.bbc.com/worklife/a... [bbc.com]

      • by nasch ( 598556 )

        AGENDER FOR ALL.

        You want to forcibly tell people what gender (or lack thereof) they must identify as?

    • They should turn the gender selection menu into a slider.

      But then Chuck Norris would complain it doesn't go far enough.

    • Dimensionphobe! My gender is a dynamic n-dimensional hypercube and I'm offended. I feel it would be best represented by the color-picker and some JavaScript I've written. Implement it now or I'm walking.

      • Dimensionphobe! My gender is a dynamic n-dimensional hypercube and I'm offended.

        Is your hull convex or concave? (Just asking for a friend)

  • Its insane (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Friday November 18, 2022 @12:04AM (#63060162)
    if you filled out one of these fields. FB is the last place I would post this information, and they monetize it anyway.
    • It probably made more sense back in the early days of Facebook when it was more like a dating site for ivy league college students.

      Now? Not so much.

  • I don't use Facebook, but couldn't having users pre-declare positions on issues help improve social media moderation ?
    Posts would also have to be tagged with the poster's position on relevant issues.

    e.g. If I register as "ProWoke", I am forbidden to mod down a post that the poster tagged as "AntiWoke", because I would only be doing that to promote Wokeyness and not to promote good debate.
    • All systems can be gamed.

      If you tell me that only self declared category "x" can thumbs-up on category "x" tagged posts, then I'm now declaring myself in category "x" so I can do that.

      If you tell me that only those not in category "x" can thumbs-down on category "x" posts, then I'm now declaring that I'm not in category "x".

      Now, I want to bury some posts, or some posts meeting specific criteria, into the ground. I spin up a billion bot accounts with the right self-reported category values, and make
    • Wasn't one of the selling points of Facebook at one point for meeting new people via groups? Without basic biographical fields such as political views, it seems they're trending even further towards uselessness as a platform for people to meet.

      • But those groups, AFAIK, are just echo chambers, until someone intrudes and they get shouted out.

        Many people want more than echos, they want actual to-and-fro debate with people of different views, but that means filtering out unhelpful posts, and that means moderation.

        The problem is that the moderation of groups - as it currently works - is highly dependent on the biased group moderators' views, so actual debate is suppressed. See Reddit.
        ( And, as mentioned here recently, an even greater problem for a site
        • Many people want more than echos, they want actual to-and-fro debate with people of different views, but that means filtering out unhelpful posts, and that means moderation.

          People like to labor under the delusion they might possibly be altering another's political beliefs, but the reality is more akin to that old idiom about teaching a pig to sing: You're just wasting your time and you'll annoy the pig.

          • Conversions are probably rare, but people in the middle might be swayed by a good argument.

            And I like to learn the facts of the case, even if they are not all in favor of my standpoint.

            Which is why i despise the intolerant woke.
  • Geesh, I joined something like ten years ago. I got the message this week that they'll be removing them. which is fine by me because I filled them out with fake information. or did I... maybe I really am a Pastafarian from Antarctica.

  • All you have to do is hint that LGBT people, or anyone who's not a WASP, are actual human beings and citizens with civil rights and entitled to equal access and protections under the law, or to be in any way insufficiently worshipful of dear leader. Then you'll be branded as a woke leftist grooming libtard moonbat baby-eating commie mutant traitor. You'll then also become a target for stalking and harassment and all manner of vile attacks by people who, through those actions, are announcing their own affi

    • Then you'll be branded as a woke leftist grooming libtard moonbat baby-eating commie mutant traitor. You'll then also become a target for stalking and harassment and all manner of vile attacks by people who, through those actions, are announcing their own affiliations equally clearly.

      You're thinking of Twitter, if you do manage to get past the fact that generally nobody notices what you're saying unless you're already somewhat famous initially. I feel it's a bit like how in the music industry you haven't really made it until Weird Al parodies one of your songs, you're not famous enough on Twitter until someone threatens you over politics.

      On Facebook, the only people would would be branding you a "leftist groomer" would be ones you added to your friends list yourself, and it's probably

  • The more they airbrush out the differences between people, the more everyone looks like a part of the borg.

    But maybe the focus on faces was never really deep in the first place.

Keep up the good work! But please don't ask me to help.

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