The co-founder of the extremely popular messaging service WhatsApp, which was purchased by Facebook for $19 billion four years ago, appeared to tell everyone that they should no longer use Facebook.
“It is time. #deletefacebook,” Brian Acton, an affluent entrepreneur and computer programmer, wrote Tuesday night on Twitter.
His definitive-sounding statement is likely in response to purportedly recent revelations that Facebook’s features can be utilized or manipulated for data collection purposes.
Facebook announced Friday that it is suspending Cambridge Analytica, a data assessment firm that worked with President Donald Trump’s campaign team during the run-up to the 2016 election, for violating contractual agreements.
Specifically, Facebook said that after agreeing to give Cambridge and other associates access to user data in an admittedly “legitimate way and through proper channels,” it realized that they were wrongfully using it. Facebook eventually ordered them to delete all pertinent data, but later found out they did not do so properly or completely.
While arguing that the disbarment is necessary in its attempts to ensure people’s information is protected, Facebook clarified that it wasn’t a data breach despite several reports describing it as such.
“Everyone involved gave their consent,” Paul Grewal, Facebook’s vice president and deputy general counsel, said in the blog post detailing the situation.
Nevertheless, Acton, who’s WhatsApp provides protected communications for more than one billion people, is clearly perturbed with Facebook’s actions and ultimate effects. He followed up his terse statement with a brief explanation.
“Delete and forget,” he continued in another tweet. “We at Signal [another secured messaging app] are holding Awareness-rising event.”
It is also possible that Acton was just declaring his intention to delete his own social media profile, whether or not as an announcement of an action for others to follow.
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