#DeleteFacebook movement surges in theft fury
FACEBOOK’S attempts to save face seem to be falling flat.
Internet users continued to push #DeleteFacebook on Thursday as advertisers hit the pause button. Company shares took another hit and a House committee called on billionaire founder Mark Zuckerberg to testify after the revelation that a Trump campaign-linked company secretly breached the data of 50 million users.
Mozilla, the web giant behind the popular browser Firefox, said early Thursday it was suspending advertising on the social media platform.
“We stand up for transparency & user control because they make the web healthier for us all. That’s why we’re taking a break from Facebook,” the company said in a Twitter post.
The announcement mirrored similar sentiments from the British advertising group ISBA, which represents thousands of well-known brands and planned to meet with Facebook officials Friday as it threatened to withdraw ads, too.
“What we are hearing at ISBA is that advertisers are concerned,” company Director General Phil Smith told the BBC.
“We want reassurances for our members that it will get to the bottom of the issues and any implications for the public and for advertisers,” Smith said.
Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said they want Zuckerberg to show up and testify in person.
Committee members Greg Walden of Oregon and Frank Pallone of New Jersey said in a brief statement that the “latest revelations regarding Facebook’s use and security of user data raise many serious consumer protection concerns.”
They said Zuckerberg is the “right witness to provide answers to the American people” and promised they would work with him to set a date for a hearing in the near future.
The continued fallout came a day after Zuckerberg admitted failures in a Wednesday Facebook post that vowed reforms.
Facebook stock tanked another $4.50 per share Thursday after bouncing around in negative territory for hours.
Zuckerberg confirmed his company knew in 2015 that Stephen Bannon’s research firm Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained the private data of Facebook users without their consent.
Zuckerberg said Facebook quickly demanded Cambridge Analytica delete the data. But Facebook failed to warn the affected users.
Zuckerberg publicly announced the breach only after The Guardian, The New York Times and Britain’s Channel 4 obtained bombshell information that Cambridge Analytica not only kept the data — but used it to build psychographic profiles of American voters and influence the 2016 election in Donald Trump’s favor.
More social media users followed in the footsteps of superstar Cher, actor Jeffrey Wright and WhatsApp founder Brian Acton by circulating #DeleteFacebook.
Best-selling author David Hansson used the hashtag as he tweeted a quote from Zuckerberg saying the scandal hasn't caused a “meaningful” number of defections. “Sounds like a challenge to me. Zuckerberg basically just double-dog dared you,” Hansson wrote to his 285,000 Twitter followers.