Co-founder of one of the largest multi-media messaging application WhatsApp, Brian Acton is in the news again. Speaking at Wired’s 25th-anniversary summit, Anton stood by his ‘Delete Facebook’ tweet. He said, “If you want to be on Facebook and you want to have ads thrust in front of you, go to town."
Last year when Cambridge Analytica scandal swept the world, Anton took to twitter and expressed his concern. He tweeted ‘#DeleteFacebook’ and it was this tweet that inspired people to make it into a movement of sorts.
According to The Verge’s report, Acton parted ways with Facebook back in 2017 over conflict with Mark Zuckerberg. It was reported that Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg wanted to monetize WhatsApp while Acton was against the idea.
Acton is now the Executive Chairman of the Signal Foundation, a non-profit organization with a mission to develop open-source privacy technology that protects free expression.
However, Brain Acton isn’t the first Facebook executive to speak against the company. In 2017, the former head of growth Chamath Palihapitiya said in a statement, “We have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.”
