#DeleteFacebook movement is gaining momentum, all over the world. Joining the bandwagon is WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, who is now asking his followers to ditch Facebook.
Meanwhile, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has expressed his apology over the whole scandal of users’ data misuse and exploitation by Cambridge Analytica.
On the other hand, Govt. of India has issued a stern warning to Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg over this issue, and have threatened to summon Mark in case India’s electoral process is hampered or influenced via Facebook.
Will Cambridge Analytica scandal prove to be the Waterloo moment for Facebook?
Govt of India To Zuckerberg: You Can Be Summoned!
After the scandal came into light, wherein data mining and analytics firm Cambridge Analytica was found to be stealing, abusing and exploiting around 50 million Facebook users’ data for influencing US Presidential elections, Indian Govt. has become alert.
And angry.
In a stern warning to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has clearly stated that such activities won’t be tolerated in India.
In a direct, and blunt attack on Facebook, the Minister said,
“..let me make it very, very clear, we fully support freedom of press, speech and expression; we fully support free exchange of ideas on social media. But any attempt, covert or overt, by social media, including Facebook, of trying to influence India’s electoral process through undesirable means will neither be appreciated nor be tolerated,”.
He has made clear that if needed, Govt. of India will summon Mark Zuckerberg into India. He said, “We have got stringent power in the IT Act, we shall use it, including summoning you in India,”
WhatsApp Co-Founder: Delete Facebook!
Brian Acton, who co-founded Whatsapp with Jan Koum and successfully sold their app to Facebook for $16 billion, has revolted against Facebook due to the on-going crisis.
He tweeted, “It is time. #deletefacebook”
Brian is worth $6.5 billion right now, and this strong statement coming from him signifies a lot of things for the future.
Reports had come last month that he has invested $50 million into Signal, a messenger app which is trying to compete against WhatsApp.
Mark Zuckerberg: We Are Sorry!
And finally, the CEO and Founder of Facebook has stepped in, and admitted his mistake.
In a rare media tour, Mark Zuckerberg invited media personals and shared his side of the story in the whole crisis.
He said,
“This was a major breach of trust and I’m really sorry this happened. Our responsibility now is to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
He said that he is ready to testify in front of the Congress, and even supported a regulation over their social media platform, to avoid such data stealing, and negatively influencing voters’ mind in future.
He said that soon 20,000 employees would be monitoring Facebook’s security and data protection mechanism.
After the controversy over data exploitation was confirmed, Mark Zuckerberg has lost over $5 billion in wealth due to the sharp drop in their share prices. Hashtag #DeleteFacebook is trending globally, as not only Facebook users, but also their employees are angry and hurt over this scandal.
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