Cambridge Analytica’s data breach is a shattering experience for those who suffered from the fiasco, but is it time to delete your Facebook account?
The news that Cambridge Analytica, a political data firm that worked on United States President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, was able to gain access to private data through the social network has sparked an unusually strong reaction among its users.
The hashtag #DeleteFacebook appeared more than 10,000 times on Twitter within a two-hour period on Wednesday (March 21), according to the analytics service ExportTweet.
On Tuesday, it was mentioned 13,466 times, according to the analytics service Digimind.
Perhaps in a reminder that in business, there are very few friends around, competitors are rallying against Facebook.
Mr Brian Acton, a co-founder of the WhatsApp messaging service, told his tens of thousands of followers on Tuesday to delete Facebook. The social network acquired WhatsApp in a US$19 billion (S$24.94 billion) deal in 2014.
For people who aren’t celebrities or billionaires, the decision to abandon Facebook came reluctantly, because the platform often served as their sole connection to certain relatives, friends and professional opportunities, wrote the New York Times.
In defence of Facebook, the due diligence of data sharing goes both ways. The breach, though consequential for Facebook, should not be the reason why a Facebook account is deleted.
Yes, it’s true that the debate over privacy has plagued Facebook for years. But while the naysayers were ruling over the debates, the world embraced the social media platform.
It brought the collapse of the Yahoo messenger platform, which was plagued by spammers – intentionally or not – and this gave an edge to Facebook.
In time, Facebook messenger became the norm in communication on a global scale.
However, today, despite the existence of other social media platforms, Facebook remains one of the most favoured ways of communicating with family, businesses and friends.
It remains one of the cheapest advertising platforms in comparison to Twitter and Linkedin.
And some say it is even more affordable than Google.
Nevertheless, it is also a bit time for users who are frustrated with Facebook’s overzealous control of postings on its platform.
Many users are using the data breach to attack Facebook over its sharing policies and tight control of what some people say.
Others are using this incident to campaign for LGBT causes, claiming Facebook does not allow free speech.
Mark Zuckerberg calls Cambridge Analytica scandal 'a major breach of trust'
JUST IN: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the Cambridge Analytica scandal: "This was a major breach of trust, and I'm really sorry that this happened." He pledges a “full forensic audit” to ensure no more breaches occur. http://cnn.it/2pvvxgK
Posted by CNN on Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Some of the messages to Mark Zuckerberg are here: