Deleting your account in social network is easy

Chennai: If you are tired of your social networking account and just want to get rid of all the connections on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter, then Web 2.0 Suicide Machine to delete your account. This software developed by Moddr, a media lab situated in the Netherlands, runs a website which allows users to get de-addicted from social networking services. Suicide Machine claims to have unfriended more than 52,000 people from Facebook and 'untweeted' over 1,75,000 from Twitter, according to The Hindu.

Moddr has a team of three people, Danja Vasiliev (server maintenance), Walter Langelaar (production organizer) and Gordan Savicic (suicide software developer). "We are experimentalists and interventionists on everyday technologies. Our mission is to display a critical perspective on contemporary media through our artistic practice," explains Gordan, in an email interview.

Suicide Machine claims to have unfriended more than 52,000 people from Facebook and 'untweeted' over 1,75,000 from Twitter. The web service has gained a lot of momentum over the past few weeks, after its presence went viral through the very social networks it targets. On January 1, Facebook blocked the IP address of the site's server to prevent it from "executing" its members. The team is, of course, working out a way to circumvent the IP blocking. The website also features a hilarious promotional video - hosted via vimeo.com - of a man declaring just how relieved he was to get his real life back. And quite cheekily, the service lists the very social networks it targets as its partners.

This is how the Suicide Machine works. After user has entered his login details for the services he want to be deleted from, the machine starts a graphical session which is being displayed in the user's browser within a flash window. First it logs into your account, changes your profile picture and password and then starts to erase your friendship connections, groups and wall posts. Basically, you can watch your own 2.0 suicide in realtime. All you need to have is a browser with a standard flash plugin.

Gordan says Web 2.0 Suicide Machine started initially as a club gimmick and was not intended to become a web service. "The machine started with a club event we've been organising where the idea was to collectively delete your social network profiles. Just grab a drink, fill out some forms and do away with your web2.0 alterego. Later on, we developed it further into a complete automatised web service."

"We do have a healthy amount of paranoia to think that everyone should have the right to quit her 2.0-ified life by the help of automatised machines. Facebook and Co. are going to hold all your information and pictures on their servers forever! We still hope that by removing your contact details and friend connections one by one, your data is being cached out from their backup servers. This can happen after days, weeks, months or even years."

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