Facebook kills social suicide app Social Roulette
Mimicking the real-life game Russian roulette, the app gave Facebook users a one-in-six chance of deleting their own account before the social network deleted the app.
A Facebook app that mimicked the real-life lethal game of Russian roulette in deleting user accounts apparently did not leave the social network fired up.
Social Roulette, which launched Saturday, gave players a one-in-six chance of deleting their own Facebook account, a form of social suicide, if you will. If you lost (or won, depending on your level of exasperation with social networking), the app would delete all aspects of the user's account, including posts, likes, photos, and friend connections, before deactivating the account.
According to its description, the app was intended for people looking to burn their Facebook bridges to their virtual relationships, as well as those looking for a virtual thrill:
Everyone thinks about deleting their account at some point, it's a completely normal reaction to the overwhelming nature of digital culture. Is it time to consider a new development in your life? Are you looking for the opportunity to start fresh? Or are you just seeking cheap thrills at the expense of your social network? Maybe it's time for you to play Social Roulette.
With a five-in-six chance of not being deleted by the app, those who lived to post another day would get a message posted to their time line indicating the played the game and survived:
However, the intent of the app, which was created in a few hours by Jonas Lund, Jonas Jongelan, and NYU adjunct professor Kyle McDonald, seems to run counter to Facebook's goal of growing its user base, leading the social network to block it.
"It took us four hours to create the project, and it took another four hours after the launch for Facebook to respond by blocking the API key and restricting our ability to create Facebook applications," McDonald told TechCrunch's Josh Constine. "The app was flagged by an automated system for 'creating a negative user experience.' After review, they decided they don't like our logo either. We tried to follow the branding guidelines but we must have misunderstood them."
Facebook declined to comment the circumstances surrounding Social Roulette, saying only that its goal is to protect the user experience.
"We take action against apps that violate our platform policies as laid out here: https://developers.facebook.com/policy/, in order to maintain a trustworthy experience for users," a Facebook representative said in a statement.