Brian Acton, the co-founder of WhatsApp has asked everyone to delete their Facebook account immediately following the social media giant's alleged connection with controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica (CA).
The co-founder of WhatsApp took to his Twitter handle and posted "It is time. #deletefacebook". The hashtag has now gone viral on the Internet, and thousands of people all around the world have started deleting their Facebook account citing threats to piracy. However, it will take 90 days for a user's data to get wiped out from Facebook completely.
It was in 2014 that WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton sold their messaging app WhatsApp to Facebook for a whopping $19 billion. According to a Forbes report, Acton had a stake of 20 percent in WhatsApp during the time of its selling, and the deal made him worth around $3.8 billion. Acton started Signal Foundation this year, and is currently busy with its operations.
Cambridge Analytica behind Facebook's fatal fall
It was a blind yet crooked move from data firm Cambridge Analytica which played a crucial role behind Facebook's fatal data breach. Cambridge Analytica did not delete the data of more than 50 million users as agreed to Facebook. As an aftermath, Mark Zuckerberg's firm suspended CA from Facebook last week.
As the news about data leak of about 50 million Facebook users is spreading like wildfire, Facebook stocks have dropped by 10 percent, and the trend is likely to continue in the coming days too.
Soon, the data firm suspended Alexander Nix, its chief executive, after records of him claiming the company has played a crucial role in the election of Donald Trump were leaked.
"We are suspending Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), including their political data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, from Facebook. Given the public prominence of this organization, we want to take a moment to explain how we came to this decision and why," said Facebook in a statement.
Zuckerberg admits the mistake
Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO posted a timeline of events since 2007 to make it clear that Facebook has been always standing by its users. However, Zuckerberg admitted that some mistakes have happened unintentionally, and made it clear that steps will be taken to resolve the current crisis.
"We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you. I've been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn't happen again. The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it," posted Zuckerberg on his Facebook account.
