Back to Facebook (Briefly)

I hadn’t been on Facebook since 2018. The Cambridge Analytica revelations were the final straw - the idea that my data was being harvested to manipulate elections was enough to make me delete my account and walk away from the platform entirely.

But practical needs have a way of forcing compromises. When you’re trying to find a reliable plumber in the Valleys, Facebook groups are often the only game in town. The local Facebook groups - “Rhondda Buy and Sell,” “Pentre Community,” “Tonypandy Traders” - they’re where people actually share recommendations and coordinate services. So I reluctantly created a new account, planning to use it purely for practical purposes and then disappear again.

At first, I’ll admit, I was having fun with it. I discovered that if you posted obviously AI-generated slow cooker recipes into slow cooker groups - things like “Slow Cooker Eels and Noodles” with bizarre ingredients, almost every recipe finished with “2-6 heaped tablespoons of granulated instant coffee” - people would react with such elaborate outrage that it felt like they were in on the joke. The replies were half angry, half performative, and entirely ridiculous. It was harmless absurdity in an absurd medium.

But then I started seeing the other content that was being pushed, and the mood shifted entirely.

Within days, I was being served content from pages like “Voice of the Valleys” - inflammatory posts designed to stoke outrage. Anti-immigration memes, conspiracy theories, claims that net zero policies are designed to impoverish working families.

More disturbing was watching people I knew engaging with this content. Neighbours, former colleagues, people I’d grown up with - sharing it, adding angry commentary, getting pulled deeper into extreme positions. I watched one person go from sharing concerns about local housing to posting replacement theory content within weeks.

The sophistication was striking. These pages would start with legitimate local concerns - roads, council problems, lack of investment - then gradually introduce divisive content. Real issues redirected towards convenient scapegoats rather than the people actually responsible.

I could see the radicalisation happening in real time. People who’d never expressed far-right views suddenly sharing Britain First content. The playbook hasn’t changed since 2016, but the targeting has become more sophisticated.

I found my plumber after two days. I deleted the account after two weeks.

Now that I’ve deleted Facebook, I can pretend that everything is fine and nothing bad will happen because I can’t see it. Out of sight, out of mind. The radicalisation will surely stop now that I’m not there to witness it.