The Shortcut

Share this post

Facebook won't let you list your religion, sexuality or political views on your profile

www.theshortcut.com

Facebook won't let you list your religion, sexuality or political views on your profile

Facebook is changing certain details from your bio on December 1

Adam Vjestica
Nov 18, 2022
5
Share this post

Facebook won't let you list your religion, sexuality or political views on your profile

www.theshortcut.com
Mark Zuckerberg wearing a grey sweater
(Credit: Drew Angerer via Getty Images)

➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Facebook bio changes

  • 📝 Your Facebook profile will include less information soon

  • 👋 Religious views, political views and sexuality will disappear on December 1

  • 🗣️ Meta says the change will make Facebook “easier to use”

  • 👧 The platform’s popularity with teens has nosedived in recent years

Facebook will no longer let you show your religion, sexuality, political views or addresses on your profile from December 1.

The upcoming change was spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra, who shared the announcement on Twitter.

Twitter avatar for @MattNavarra
Matt Navarra @MattNavarra
Facebook is removing religious views and ‘interested in’ info from profiles from 1 December 2022
Image
Image
2:24 PM ∙ Nov 16, 2022
70Likes44Retweets

The change represents a shift for Facebook, as users would spend hours (or at least I did) filling out their Facebook profiles with all sorts of fun and interesting information (or at least I thought it was) back in the day.

In hindsight, with privacy and data sharing concerns being a real problem in today’s online world, Facebook profiles are now bereft of personal info and don’t really serve much of a purpose.

Here’s what Meta said about the upcoming profile changes:

“As part of our efforts to make Facebook easier to navigate and use, we’re removing a handful of profile fields: Interested In, Religious Views, Political Views, and Address,” said Emil Vazquez, a Meta spokesperson (thanks, Gizmodo). “We’re sending notifications to people who have these fields filled out, letting them know these fields will be removed. This change doesn’t affect anyone’s ability to share this information about themselves elsewhere on Facebook.”

It’s complicated

Facebook has seen a dramatic decline in users over the last decade and is often seen as the social media platform where people like your grandma hang out on. I’ll admit, I only have Facebook to keep in touch with family members who live abroad, but I barely use the platform at all these days.

And I’m not the only one. Facebook’s popularity has nosedived with teens since 2014, as they now prefer to use Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok as opposed to Mark Zuckerberg’s crusty old platform.

I prefer Twitter myself, but who knows how long that will last under Elon Musk’s tumultuous leadership. Musk recently started firing employees who disagreed with him online and the platform is awash with people jumping ship amid concerns it could soon be dead. I’m taking the Wolf of Wall Street approach, personally.

Twitter avatar for @ItsMrProducts
Adam @ItsMrProducts
I’ll be here until the lights go off
8:45 AM ∙ Nov 18, 2022

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is still banking on its billion-dollar investments into the metaverse and its social experience Horizon Worlds. However, judging by the state of Horizon Worlds’ latest trailer for a Godzilla Wendyverse crossover event – which has since been deleted – it’s going to struggle to attract teens, never mind grandma.

Meta recently cut 11,000 jobs, forcing CEO Mark Zuckerberg to publicly apologize. However, he didn’t back down on his commitment to building the metaverse, which has cost the company $9.4 billion so far in 2022.

The Shortcut is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Share this post

Facebook won't let you list your religion, sexuality or political views on your profile

www.theshortcut.com
Comments
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Matt Swider
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing