I hadn’t heard of the Data Transfer Project until today, a rare collaborative effort between Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter that is actually yielding helpful outcomes for folks online:

• The Data Transfer Project was announced in 2018, and is an “open-source, service-to-service data portability platform so that all individuals across the web could easily move their data between online service providers whenever they want.”

To Facebook’s credit, it is first to deliver a cross-platform porting tool:

• “Today, we are announcing a new tool on Facebook that allows people to transfer photos and videos directly from Facebook to Google Photos,” wrote Facebook on its engineering blog, which has a bunch of more technical details as well.
• Facebook has for some time offered a way to download all your data, including photos and videos, in a secure package.
• But soon you’ll be able to more easily escape Facebook’s clutches with your uploads intact.
• It is available in Ireland right now, and “will be available worldwide in early 2020” after initial feedback and testing.
• In theory, Apple should allow iCloud data transfers to Google and Facebook and everyone else, too, shortly. 
• And likewise, in theory, Google will allow rapid movement of all your Google Photos into Apples’ iCloud or Microsoft OneDrive if that’s what you want.
• Facebook gets a tick for going first. 
• Now, to be clear, Facebook still keeps everything it has on you unless you take further action: this is a port, not a deletion of your data. 
• So, unless you go ahead and delete your Facebook account, your photos remain in place. 
• Which isn’t necessarily wrong! I imagine people might be upset if they wiped their Facebook account without realizing, but it is worth noting.
• And, and, it’s worth noting that Facebook will point to this if and when the anti-trust regulators come knocking.