Close on exit, Zuckerberg

Meta has tried to scare its European users, but it hasn't worked out.

The company has explained that the future of Facebook and Instagram in Europe would be complicated if the authorities force the company to comply with the law and host the data of its European users in the EU.

That is, he does not rule out leaving.

But the announcement has been received with joy and has been experienced more as a promise than as a threat.

From the outset, the warning did not even reach a bluff.

Pablo Ximénez de Sandoval recalled this Thursday in the Opinion bulletin of EL PAÍS: “The company has no intention of leaving Europe.

It has only put it in writing among the risks for its business model”.

But many tweeters have only lacked to put the cava to cool.

For example, @cracacraca recalled that we are prepared to survive this loss: “Zuckerberg, bars have been closed in this country.

THE BARS!".

Another tweeter, @algaraabia, resorted to the meme from the series

in which Michael Scott threatens to jump off the roof and Dwight Schrute, instead of calming him down, suggests that he do a somersault.

To others, such as @Concejajala, the announcement was not enough: "Zuckerberg, please, close the WhatsApp groups of 5th grade parents as well."

In the end, what can happen if we run out of Facebook?

That we do not remember the birthday of a cousin of the town?

That we miss the latest publication of

(I'm not making this up)?

At best, Twitter users fear that Twitter will be filled with fans of photographing breakfasts, bounced from Instagram.

Or that the new ones are not prepared for the usual level of aggressiveness in this network, where it is dangerous to say good morning without a helmet.

Zuckerberg, in this country the bars have been closed.

THE BARS!

Do not come to us now threatening with your shit.

– crack (@cracacraca) February 7, 2022

As Instagram closes, this is full of runners.

– Cansino Royal (@cansinoroyal) February 7, 2022

pic.twitter.com/Lh3SjdmNOX

– Maria (@Algaraabia) February 8, 2022

Despite this euphoria, the march of Facebook and Instagram has risks: many companies depend on these networks to reach their customers.

This was one of his master moves and one of the biggest mistakes the rest of us made.

Facebook offered one stop for everything: bring your friends, your readers and your customers, he told us, and it will be easier for you to offer them your products.

And we take them.

And they stayed, of course, that millionaires are not stupid.

Years later, the company asks for money to promote the content we publish, or recommends a publishing regimen so that the algorithm pays attention to us, forcing us to work for it.

Of course, this algorithm is spoken of as if it were a divine and ungovernable force, but in reality it is designed and calibrated by these networks for their convenience and not that of their users.

And, as if that were not enough, to all this is added the risk that they can fire us at any time: an example is that of Món Orxata, a Valencian company that managed to take Facebook to court after the network closed its profile without give explanations.

That said, could we live without Facebook and Instagram?

Many believe so: one of the pioneers of the Internet, Jaron Lanier, proposed in a book that we should all leave social networks.

All.

To recover some of the empathy that anesthetizes, the time that we lose and the freedom that they steal from us.

I'm not as pessimistic as Lanier: I'm sure networks should be better designed, but I think they help to discover interesting and funny ideas, readings and people.

Still, if Facebook and Instagram leave Europe, I won't cry.

It will not be difficult to find better alternatives.

What's more, I think the company doesn't have the courage to leave.

Mark Zuckerberg you neither read me nor know that I exist, but I dare you to leave Europe.

I challenge you twice.

And I'll celebrate with horchata.