As Facebook continues to reel from the recent scandal over the use of its private data by Cambridge Analytica, the co-founder of WhatsApp Brian Acton, has begun encouraging people to stop using Facebook. Cambridge Analytica is a research firm that profiled and targeted voters for President Trump’s campaign.

Leaders in the tech industry have begun speaking out against the social network. One of the most vocal is Brian Acton. Acton is a co-founder of WhatsApp, which was later sold to Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion. Brian Acton went on Twitter and said it is time and #deletefacebook.

The WhatsApp deal made Acton rich, making him worth $5.5 billion.

Acton has been very active in the nonprofit sector, this year he helped fund the Signal Foundation, which a nonprofit arm of Signal, which is a secure messaging app supported by many in support of privacy including Edward Snowden.

Tech leaders are speaking out against Facebook

Acton is not the only one affiliated with Facebook, who is speaking out against the social media giant Facebook. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s former mentor Roger McNamee wrote a column in USA Today saying that Zuckerberg and other social media leaders should be subpoenaed by Congress. Former Facebook operations manager Sandy Parakilas told the Washington Post that the social media company did very little to address the need for better protection of personal data.

Late last year, Sean Parker, Facebook’s original president wrote a piece on the social media’s effects on society. Acton’s former partner and co-founder Koum is still CEO of WhatsApp. His social media posts have all been about his support for President Trump or the nation of Israel. Koum has not said anything publicly about the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Twitter has been lit up by the #deleteFacebook hashtag which has increased in popularity, as reports revealing the extent of Cambridge Analytica’s work and the amount of information they have managed to collect. The Observer reported that the firm receives data from nearly 50 million Facebook profiles, through the personality quiz apps.

The data was used to develop a functional social media strategy to help the Donald Trump presidential campaign. Ever since the reports were first revealed, Facebook has lost $50 billion in market value. Both US and UK regulators are examing Facebook’s actions. As a result of these revelations, Cambridge Analytica suspended its CEO.
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