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WhatsApp Co-Founder Joins #DeleteFacebook Movement

After leaving Facebook to start his own nonprofit, Acton is speaking out against the social network in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Angela Moscaritolo
 & Angela Moscaritolo Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

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The #DeleteFacebook movement just gained a notable supporter: Brian Acton, co-founder of Facebook-owned WhatsApp.

Acton and fellow WhatsApp Co-Founder Jan Koum sold their messaging app to Facebook in 2014 for $16 billion, becoming very rich in the process. After leaving Facebook last year to start his own nonprofit, Acton is now speaking out against the social media behemoth in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

"It is time. #deletefacebook," Acton wrote on Twitter Tuesday. "Delete and forget. It's time to care about privacy."

Acton's anti-Facebook PSA follows revelations that the London-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, best known for its work on the Donald Trump campaign, harvested the personal information of 50 million Facebook users without their permission for political targeting.

Cambridge Analytica obtained the sensitive data in 2014 with the help of psychology professor Dr. Aleksandr Kogan, who developed a Facebook app that not only surveyed 270,000 users over the platform, but also scraped data on their Facebook friends. The 50 million raw profiles were then transferred to Cambridge Analytica, an act that violated Facebook's policies.

Facebook has since "suspended" Cambridge Analytica, Kogan, and other involved parties, but is now facing major flak for failing to prevent this from happening. The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly investigating whether the incident violated a 2011 settlement it reached with Facebook over earlier privacy violations.

Both Facebook and WhatsApp declined to comment about the #DeleteFacebook movement and Acton's support of it.

Meanwhile, this past November, another ex-Facebooker, Chamath Palihapitiya, spoke out against the company, saying social media is corroding society and allows bad actors to "manipulate large swaths of people."

"It literally is [at] a point now where I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works," the former Facebook VP of User Growth said during an interview at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. "That is truly where we are."

About Our Expert

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade. 

Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The Technology I Use

My little Florida beach bungalow is brimming with smart home tech. I have a smart speaker or display in every room, allowing me to control other connected devices by voice. The Nest Hub on my bedside table lets me set wake-up alarms, control my smart light bulbs, and set the temperature on my smart thermostat. I use the Amazon Echo Show 8 on my kitchen counter to browse recipes, reorder protein powder, check the weather, and watch the news while I do dishes. 

Because I suffer from allergies, air purifiers are essential. My favorite model is the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, which doubles as a fan and continuously sends indoor pollution data to its companion mobile app. 

My pitbull Bradley sheds, so a good robot vacuum is a must. I currently use a premium Ecovacs Deebot that can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash its own mop cloth. 

For fitness, I like to mix up my routine with cycling, indoor rowing, running, and strength training in addition to yoga. I take classes on the Tonal 2 smart strength training machine, I row indoors on an Aviron machine, and track my beach runs with an Apple Watch while listening to music on my Apple AirPods Pro. On the weekends, I love riding e-bikes like the rugged, beach-friendly Aventon Aventure for fun and fitness.

My job involves a lot of virtual meetings, so a quality webcam, microphone, and ring light are important. I use the Jabra PanaCast 20 webcam, the Elgato Wave: 3 microphone, and a Yesker tripod ring light. 

As for my preferred phone platform, I'm an iPhone person, but I've also extensively used Android for product testing.

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