Business World

Whatsapp co-founder Brian Acton wants everyone to delete whatsapp

Whatsapp co-founder Brian Acton wants everyone to delete whatsapp

Whatsapp co-founder Brian Acton tweeted today about Facebook Data leak matter and telling people to delete facebook. Acton’s tweet comes after reports emerged that a political data analysis company Cambridge Analytica accessed 50 million Facebook users’ data without their permission. Incidentally, Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion. Acton continued to be associated with Facebook after the sale but quit earlier this year to start another company Signal Foundation.

Brian-Acton is not the first prime former Facebook executive who has shown unease about the company after leaving it. In Last year, former head of growth Chamath Palihapitiya created a controversy after saying “we have created tools that are cutting apart the social fabric of how society works.” Other former executives to express regrets include Sean Parker, Justin Rosenstein, and investor Roger McNamee. On Monday, Facebook’s shares fell 7 percent after reports that British firm Cambridge Analytica, a consultant, for now, US President Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign, used data as including user likes, inappropriately obtained from Facebook users to try and influence the elections held in November 2016.

Facebook announced two days ago it had hired a digital forensics firm to investigate the data leak. A Facebook statement said the forensics firm Stroz Friedberg would “conduct a comprehensive audit of Cambridge Analytica,” and that the company had agreed to comply and provide access to its servers and systems.

Facebook said University of Cambridge psychologist Aleksandr Kogan, who developed the app used to harvest user data, also agreed to cooperate. It also added that Christopher Wylie, a Canadian data analytics expert who worked with Kogan and who revealed the data leak to media, had declined to cooperate with the audit. The California social network giant said,”This is part of a comprehensive internal and external review that we are conducting to determine the accuracy of the claims that the Facebook data in question still exists”.

About the author

Abhishek Lohia

Abhishek Lohia was a Sports and Political Writer working for Newsfolo and is no longer associated with the organization.

Leave a Comment