The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine is a service that automatically removes private content and friends on social media platforms

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

and

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, to "commit suicide in social networks", without deleting or deactivating their accounts. The service is part of the non-profit foundation

WORM Worms are many different distantly related bilateria, bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limb (anatomy), limbs, and usually no eyes. Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine ...

, based in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The "Web 2.0 Suicide Machine" has, as of January 2010, assisted with more than 1,000 'virtual deaths', ending more than 80,500 friendships on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

and removing 276,000 tweets from

Functionality

Rather than deleting

user account A user is a person who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified to the system by a username (or user name). Some software products provide services to other systems and have no direct end use ...

s, it removes private content and friendships. To start the deletion process, the user has to provide their login credential for the

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

from which they want to be deleted, and then "watch your life passing by and reflect upon your real & virtual friends", while private content and friend relationships are removed. In the end the user is included in a memorial album of all the suicides, with their profile picture, their name and their "last words".

Capabilities

"Web 2.0 Suicide Machine" has listed the functions of which the service is capable thus far as the following: The Facebook option is no longer available on Web 2.0 Suicide Machine as Facebook sent a

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent by one party, often a business, to warn another party that they believe the other party is committing an unlawful act, such as copyright infringement, and that they will take legal action if the oth ...

(C&D) letter on January 6, 2010, demanding that the website stop their actions. ;

* Logging into your account * Changing your password and your profile picture * Removing all your business connections * Logging out ;

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

* Logging into your account * Removing all your friends * Leaving a status message that you've committed suicide * Logging out ;

* Logging into your account * Changing your password and your profile picture * Removing all people you follow * Removing all your followers * Removing all your tweets * Logging out

Controversy

In January 2010, Facebook blocked the service for a short time and sent a

letter from its lawyers. The service remained up and running, but the website has since ceased operation. Its creators "consider this project as a piece of socio-political net art".

References

External links

* {{Online social networking Web 2.0 Social networking services Internet properties established in 2009

Functionality

Capabilities

Controversy

See also

References

External links