Delete NOW. WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton has urged the world to ‘delete’ their Facebook accounts because Facebook “sells” users’ data. (COURTESY PHOTO)
WASHINGTON – WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton has urged the world to ‘delete’ their Facebook accounts ‘now’, Mail has reported.
Speaking to university students at Stanford University in the US, Mr. Acton, now the head of non-profit WhatsApp rival Signal, blasted Facebook Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly selling users’ data.
He has now called for people to ‘reject’ Facebook by deleting its family of apps from their smartphones and other devices.
The shocking call comes after the world’s largest social network has been beset by a string of privacy scandals which Facebook continues to deny.
Mr. Acton has been openly critical of Silicon Valley firms like Facebook and Google in the past for their seemingly profit-driven approach at the expense of people’s data.
Mr. Acton is one of the great minds behind what we know as WhatsApp today. He along with Jan Koum founded the company in 2009 and later it sold out to Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion.
“We give them the power. That’s the bad part. We buy their products. We sign up for these websites. Delete Facebook, right?” Mr. Acton said.
Earlier disagreement
The Co-founder had a disagreement with the Facebook CEO regarding monetization in WhatsApp and that led to him leaving the company. He was against showing ads inside WhatsApp, he believed they could find a better alternative to monetize the app. As per him, ads inside Facebook means weakening of encryption which ultimately causes damage to the users’ privacy.
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