Facebook recently made it clear, through the voice of president Mark Zuckerberg, that very few people have deleted their accounts from the social network, but the reality seems to be completely different. According to information collected by a recent study, we are talking about 9% of Facebook users who deleted their accounts from the social network after the Cambridge Analytica scandal began, the figure being a very high one.
At the end of 2018, Facebook had 2.1 billion users registered on the platform, so the deletion of 9% of the accounts would represent a loss of about 200 million users in a period of just one month. The figure is not confirmed by the Facebook company, but surely there will never be a confirmation from it for any such figure, but if it is real, then it presents a very difficult situation that the social network is going through.
Facebook - hundreds of millions of people deleted their accounts
Facebook generated so much frustration among some users that 17% of them deleted the application from their iPhone, Android, and other phones, and another 11% deleted it from other devices as well. This means a possible loss of several hundred million active users in the Facebook network, who have not yet deleted their accounts, but if they are no longer active in the social network, it is as if those accounts no longer exist, so in finally, the company still has to lose from their disappearance.
"Privacy matters to our panelists. Thirty-six percent said they are very concerned about it and another 41% saying they are somewhat concerned. Their behavior on Facebook has somewhat changed due to their privacy concerns. Seventeen percent deleted their Facebook app from their phone, 11% deleted from other devices, and 9% deleted their account altogether. These numbers might not worry Facebook too much, but there are less drastic steps users are taking that should be worrying as they directly impact Facebook's business model."
Facebook loses the most when users decide to leave the social network in order not to be constantly monitored and not to have their data analyzed by others, something that even the president Mark Zuckeberg does not want. Facebook can only learn how big the problem of the Cambridge Analytica scandal is if people leave the social network in large numbers, and this already seems to be happening, but at the moment we don't know if the first figures are real.
