What do Nepali users think about locked Facebook accounts?

 What do Nepali users think about locked Facebook accounts?

The covid epidemic of 2020 was raging all over the world. Due to the fear of infection with the corona virus, most of the countries had imposed a ban. As a result, people were afraid to go openly to their neighbor's house. Internet has become a great option to spend such time. Before that, people who rarely used the internet began to consider social media platforms as the main source of information during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the number of users increased on the social media platform, the incidents of misleading information, troll content and abuse started to increase. Especially in the Asian region, where the concept of digital literacy is low, incidents of online abuse started to increase. Also, in India, where there are 336 million users of the social network Facebook, the incidents of online abuse have increased significantly.

Incidents of targeting married women and teenagers and vandalizing their photos on Facebook started to appear. To control this, Facebook's parent company Meta introduced the profile lock feature in India for the first time in May 2020.

After locking the profile, other than the people connected with you cannot see your statuses, photos, videos and other personal information, so this feature became the choice of many people. This feature was initially targeted at women and later became equally important for men and other categories. After this feature came, it became easy for people in high positions to keep their personal and family activities on Facebook.

This feature, which was first introduced by Facebook in India, gradually became available in other countries as well. In the last few months, this feature has started to be available in Nepal as well. There are more trolls on social media about this feature available among most of the users.

Tekpana raised a question on this matter through its Facebook page. "How do you feel when you receive a friend request from a locked Facebook account?" In the question, most of the users have expressed a negative opinion about 'Profile Lock'.

"I don't accept it, I delete it, I want to hit the block, I feel like I don't need a pot, my cheek feels like a lamp, I don't think my face is worth showing, I feel like hitting Ram Dhu somewhere, I feel like a ghost in the dark, big It seems like a friend request has come from a person, it looks like they are calling in with a doorknok, it seems absurd, it seems like there is 33 kg of gold in the profile, it seems like it is a fake account,” most of the replies came in the post.

Some have mentioned that they don't care if the profile is locked or not and if they know, they accept it, otherwise they delete the request or leave it at that. Some users have expressed their happiness when such a request comes, saying that the privacy will be protected by locking the profile.

"Sounds like someone who uses social media and is aware of their personal safety," one user wrote. Another user wrote in response to the question, "I seem to be one of the people close to him, with whom he does not want to hide his pictures."

Although some limited users had a positive opinion about this feature, most of them had a negative opinion.

Why are users negative about the profile lock feature?

When someone's friend request comes on Facebook, the first thing that comes to mind is the name and profile. If you try to view such accounts by opening the friend request notification, you cannot zoom in on their profile photos.

I don't think I know the name, but when I try to look at the profile page, it's natural to get bored if the photo doesn't open. Similarly, the locked account shows the added and mutual friends with that person. However, that person must have made it visible to anyone who is a friend. Other than that, no other details can be seen.

Usually, the person receiving the friend request takes a decision to accept or reject the request based on these various aspects. When no detail can be seen, it can be analyzed that there is a negative perception.

Why is it necessary to lock the profile?

The profile lock feature is a very useful feature from the point of view of privacy protection. The benefits of this feature to the user are discussed below.

1) Privacy is protected

Some posts on Facebook are uploaded to be seen only by people who have an add. You can also select the 'Only Friends' option in the privacy settings so that only friends can see such posts. However, it may not be considered that this option should be kept in all cases.

Locking a profile automatically sets the setting so that only people with added posts can see it. Apart from that, other than the person who has an add, others cannot see the information in the profile. In this case, unauthorized persons cannot know your personal information.

2) Avoid abuse by others

In some cases, there are people who misbehave over the posts we put on a page or group or the comments made on those posts. Especially when arguing about politics, religion, language and culture, the other side can abuse you online.

In particular, they may make irrelevant comments and irrelevant comments on your posts, photos and videos. So come to lock profile to avoid such risks Of course.

3) To present only to a limited number of people

If your profile is locked, your information will not be visible on other platforms. If your profile is public, your information will be found in the Google search engine.

In that case, your information may reach known or unknown people. So profile lock feature is suitable to present your details only to limited people.

4) Avoid association with unnecessary people

Locking your profile can prevent unwanted people from seeing your information, which may deter them from sending friend requests. In this way, if you want to prevent unnecessary people from sending friend requests, you need to lock the profile.

5) Avoid misuse of photos

Bad minded people can misuse your photos in various ways. There may also be people who misuse your photos especially to create fake accounts. Therefore, it is advisable to lock your profile to prevent your photos from being misused.

How to lock profile?

The profile lock feature has been made available to most accounts by Meta. If you have kept your account in 'Professional Mode' then that feature may not be available in your account.

So first of all you have to remove the professional mode of your account. If your account is not in professional mode then you can lock profile by following below method.

First, open the Facebook app.

Then go to your timeline by tapping on your profile on the top right.

And tap on the three dots on the right.

And tap on the 'Lock Profile' option.

After doing this, click on the 'Lock Your Profile' button at the end.

This way you can lock your profile.