Growing mistrust threatens Facebook after Data Mining Scandal

SAN FRANCISCO: As Facebook reels from the scandal over hijacked personal data, a movement to quit the social network gathered momentum on Wednesday, portending threats to one of the most powerful internet firms.

In a sign of the mood, one of those calling it quits was a high-profile co-founder of the WhatsApp messaging service acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion.

“It is time. #deletefacebook,” Brian Acton said in a tweet, using the hashtag protesting the handling of the crisis by the world’s biggest social network.

The WhatsApp co-founder, who now works at the rival messaging application Signal, posted the comment amid a growing uproar over revelations that Facebook data was harvested by a British political consulting firm linked to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

“Delete and forget. It’s time to care about privacy,” he said.

The huge social network also faces investigations on both sides of the Atlantic over its data practices, and a handful of lawsuits which could turn into class actions that may prove a costly distraction for Facebook.

It remains to be seen whether the uproar would lead to any significant departures, but the topic was active on social media, including on Facebook itself.

Donella Cohen, a Weather Channel product manager, posted on her Facebook page that she would be off the network by midnight.

“The latest revelations are showing just how corrupt and detrimental to society this particular platform is,” she wrote.

“I hope that a new social network emerges. One that isn’t so greedy as to corrupt the political process in the name of the almighty dollar.”