Boston, Massachusetts, USA -- Sunday, April 1, 2018 -- Today, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced an ambitious plan to purchase the embattled social media giant Facebook via a crowdfunding campaign. It will seed a campaign on the Crowd Supply platform with the money from its recent Pineapple Fund donation.

"When we received a 91.45 Bitcoin donation from the anonymous fund, we planned to use the money for several purposes, including bringing the free software movement to new audiences," said FSF executive director John Sullivan. "The recent scandal over Cambridge Analytica's illegal mass collection of Facebook user data has left the site's future up in the air. Our sysadmin team is ready to overhaul the entire site to become the world's largest privacy respecting, free software and free JavaScript-based social media platform. We're not sure yet what the name of the new site will be, but we're sure it will involve a clever acronym."

In the past, the FSF has criticized Facebook as "a gold mine for government surveillance and advertisers," and its widespread, global use positions it as the perfect platform for the exponential growth of the free software movement.

"We've been waiting to sink our teeth in to Facebook for years," said FSF office manager Jonathan Tuttle. "I've been developing Libre FarmVille in my spare time, and can't wait to share it on the site."

The crowdfunding campaign will run until the end of 2018.

Media Contact

Jonathan Tuttle

Office Manager

Free Software Foundation

April Fools

+1 (617) 542 5942

campaigns@fsf.org

