Facebook has blocked an app based on the game Russian Roulette which gives users a one-in-six chance of having their account deleted.
The Social Roulette app, created by Jonas Lund, Jonas Jongelan and New York University professor Kyle McDonald, was blocked in just four hours for going against the company’s objective of creating a positive user experience, the social network said.
“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,” read the app description.
Social Roulette was first made available to users on Saturday. When players lost the app would delete their entire account, including photos and friends, and finally deactivate the account.
“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. 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,” McDonald told TechCrunch.
Facebook is yet to comprehensively comment on the matter although a Facebook representative in a statement cited the company’s policy.
“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,” the statement said.
