A funny Web app from the Netherlands is the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine. Through it, users can commit (virtual) suicide to kill off their accounts on various social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. The app graphically shows your accounts in their death throes before the final snuff-out. Noticing the 50,000+ users who had nixed their accounts through the machine, Facebook banned the IP addresses the site uses, without comment.
The Suicide Machine is not a forced endeavor, but a voluntary decision by people who really want to get rid of their online social lives. Rather than just abandoning your account, which leaves all of that information and virtual friend connection online, the Suicide Machine completely obliterates the account, top to bottom.
Using the machine, a user logs into one of their social networking accounts and sets the machine in motion. Over about a minute’s time, the app graphically shows you un-friending all of your friends, deleting extranneous data (pictures, profile info, etc.) and then finishes off the account with a final goodbye.
The accounts are deleted outright on most services (since this is actually almost impossible), but the passwords and email addresses are changed, making them non-recoverable. The service works with Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Well, it used to work with Facebook. The LA Times reported this morning the Facebook blockade. The machine is fighting back, though, working to find a way to circumvent the ban. I’m sure it won’t take those clever folks long. Here’s video of the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine in action:
web 2.0 suicide machine promotion from moddr_ on Vimeo.
