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May 15, 2013

Social Roulette Shot Down by Facebook

By Robbie Pleasant, TMCnet Contributor

Hello, Facebook (News - Alert) users. It’s time to play a game. You have spent countless hours adding pictures, posts and friends to your Facebook account. And now, one of you will lose it all.



Or at least, that was the case for those who played Social Roulette, an app that deletes one in six Facebook accounts when played. However, no sooner did it go up than Facebook locked it out, leaving only a few accounts with virtual bullets to the head in its wake.

Social Roulette is essentially an online counterpart to the deadly game of Russian Roulette. Instead of losing your life if your number comes up, you lose your Facebook account. The app deletes all posts, friends, apps, likes and so on before deactivating the account – a complete social media suicide. Those who “survive” get a post on their Facebook page saying that they made it out with their account intact.

Still, it didn’t last long. About four hours after its launch, Facebook blocked the API key for “creating a negative user experience,” not to mention being pretty bad for Facebook’s business. While the creators are hoping to address the issues and be allowed to run again, it’s pretty unlikely.

With all the social networks about, it’s easy for people to get overwhelmed, or feel that their network of choice has sucked them in too much. There are some who have played Social Roulette with the intent to delete their profiles, and even if they “won,” found the courage to go ahead and delete it themselves afterwards. Many people have expressed that their social networks have taken over their actual social lives, replacing true human interaction with posts on a Facebook wall and hitting “Like” on a picture, or saying that true human interaction has become a thing of the past.

Of course, people who do feel that way are free to delete their own accounts, or not make one to begin with. I personally wanted nothing to do with Facebook until I began using it to keep in touch with friends I met at events and conventions, so I use it as a communication tool (and occasional source of Angry Birds). But everyone has their own reason to use or not use social media. Admittedly, it is often necessary to use social networks for communication, but that is another issue altogether.

Regardless of what people do with their Facebook accounts, Social Roulette provided a means of deletion in the form of a game, or a high-risk game with one’s account at stake. It’s understandable that Facebook would want to stop such a game from being used, but one must give props to Social Roulette for the effort.




Edited by Alisen Downey
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