WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton wants you to delete your Facebook account

Recently, Facebook come under scrutiny after reports emerged that the data analytics company Cambridge Analytica accessed the company's user data for over 50 million accounts without their permission

The Mark Zuckerberg-led social media company Facebook in 2014 acquired instant messaging app WhatsApp, which had been co-founded in 2009 by former Yahoo employee Jan Koum and Brian Acton. While Koum continues to lead the messaging platform, Acton has since left the company and started his own venture, Signal.

Now, Brian Acton, the estranged co-founder of WhatsApp, seems to have turned against Facebook. In a Tweet that might raise many questions, Acton wrote, “It is time”, with a hashtag, to "#deletefacebook". 

The Mark Zuckerberg-led social media company Facebook in 2014 acquired instant messaging app WhatsApp, which had been co-founded in 2009 by former Yahoo employee Jan Koum and Brian Acton. While Koum continues to lead the messaging platform, Acton has since left the company and started his own venture, Signal.

Now, Brian Acton, the estranged co-founder of WhatsApp, seems to have turned against Facebook. In a Tweet that might raise many questions, Acton wrote, “It is time”, with a hashtag, to "#deletefacebook".

Recently, Facebook come under scrutiny after reports emerged that data analytics company Cambridge Analytica accessed the company’s user data for over 50 million accounts without their permission.

The firm is also alleged to have helped Donald Trump in the US Presidential elections of 2016 by more effectively providing him target voters on Facebook than to his rival Hillary Clinton.

In a blog post, Paul Grewal, vice-president and deputy general counsel of Facebook, said: “In 2015, we learned that a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan lied to us and violated our Platform Policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Analytica.”

“Kogan requested and gained access to information from people after they chose to download his app. His app, “thisisyourdigitallife,” offered a personality prediction, and billed itself on Facebook as “a research app used by psychologists.” Approximately 270,000 people downloaded the app. In so doing, they gave their consent for Kogan to access information such as the city they set on their profile,” the blog post further said.

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