Facebook is under major scrutiny right now by regulators for its role in the misuse of user information by Cambridge Analytical, as the latter saw its world come crashing down after Canadian whistleblower Christopher Wylie broke the news of user abuse of over 50 million accounts, related to the 2016 U.S. election.
Now, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, whose company was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $16 billion, is telling everyone to delete Facebook. Earlier this afternoon he tweeted: “It is time. #deletefacebook”.
Acton did not follow up to his tweet, which sends a mixed message about parent company Facebook (surely Mark Zuckerburg can’t be happy about the message). According to The Verge, Acton has not replied to a request for comment.
The WhatsApp co-founder last month invested $50 million into Signal, a WhatsApp alternative which offers encrypted end-to-end messaging.
Definitely a weird tweet from Acton—let’s see what he has to say next about his tweet, and whether it was actually him sending the message or a “hacker”.
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So, you literally turned someone else’s tweet into a big long story?
All the articles posted are from third parties. So…..?
War and Peace is a big long story, this … not so much.
All I hear is wah wah I’m a big baby. Get over yourself, world doesn’t revolve around you.
Wonder if Jan Koum will react the same way as his co founder.
It’s good that he posted this story as I didn’t know about this. So, what is your problem? You don’t have a job and sit on internet all day long so this story is stale for you?
And you read the big, long story.
Hmmmm remember not too long ago some self righteous person asked someone to “delete your social media” ? I don’t know but she seemed very confident that people would back her up but now fastforward to 2018 ??????? not sure that person still alive.
I really wish Facebook kept it simple. Now it’s very complicated and branches out. It’s trying to do everything! I miss the old Facebook days but times change and I don’t even open the app anymore. I occasionally get the messenger notification but that’s all.
OK there is facebook and after? really in all the years with facebook there is nothing else. snapchat is maybe for teens but something similar? nothing.
I’ve been active on Google+ since 2012 and I love it there. I barely go to Facebook at all. It’s just a big cesspool, in my opinion.
This is classic overreaction from the media and those consuming it. And, the focus again is on Facebook because everyone loves to attack tech/Silicon Valley. I hope you all realize that, while what happened was wrong and needs to be fixed through regulation, the terms of service and terms and conditions when you create a Facebook profile are virtually identical to any other social media platform or peer-to-peer service you use. Twitter, iTunes, Google, etc. they all are capturing data and monetizing it. It’s how companies use these platforms, especially Facebook’s, to target specific audiences on their ad platforms.
Zuckerberg himself said he thinks Facebook should have stronger regulation, because like TV and print media there should be transparency in who is paying for the ad content being published and where it’s coming from. This comment from Acton seems pretty immature and petty, while ignoring the reality as he plays to the anti-Facebook trolls. Grow up, Facebook isn’t going anywhere.