Brian Acton, WhatsApp co-founder urged people to do away with their Facebook accounts now, during an address made to students. Mr Acton, now the head of non-profit WhatsApp rival Signal, blasted Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for trading privacy for revenue by allowing ads on his platform.
He has now called for people to reject Facebook by deleting its family of apps from their smartphones and other devices. It comes after the world’s largest social network has been beset by a string of privacy scandals.
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. It is the second time that he has made the comment publicly.
Last year he posted on Twitter ‘It is time. #delete facebook’ following Facebook’s failings involving a political consultancy firm. The data of 87 million users was improperly accessed by Cambridge Analytica, linked to the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.
Facebook is also facing a slew of lawsuits and regulatory inquiries over its privacy practices, including ongoing investigations by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and two state agencies in New York.