Facebook Kills Web 2.0 Suicide Machine

Last week, I wrote about the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, an interesting project from Moddr that would permanently remove your digital footprint from social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn. In the post, I cautioned that while the impulse to rip onself from the World 2.0 can be very tempting, cutting all of your ties from the web probably wasn’t the best idea. It would seem that Facebook agrees with me.

According to the LA Times Technology Blog, Facebook has banned the IP address of the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, essentially blocking the site’s functionality. Considering that only a marginal number of people actually used the program to remove themselves from Facebook, this doesn’t appear to be a case of Facebook reacting out of fear of losing users. Rather, Facebook has blocked the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine because the program requires third-party access to profiles, thus violating Facebook’s terms of service.

Considering the widespread media exposure that the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine received in such a short period of time, it is obvious that, for many Internet users, there is a real appeal to the idea of completely disconnecting from the web. What do you think? Do you spend too much time being unproductive on social networking websites?