Rakuten Viber, one among the world’s leading messaging apps for free and secure communication, declares it’ll cut all business ties with Facebook to shield its 1 billion users. The messaging app will remove Facebook Connect, Facebook SDK, and GIPHY, furthermore as cease all ad spending on the social networking platform, leveling up the growing #StopHateForProfit movement to boycott the tech goliath.
Amid the protests that broke out everywhere in the US over the past few weeks, a group of six organizations, as well as, the Anti-Defamation League and NAACP, called on Facebook advertisers to halt their spending on the social networking site during in July over the company’s inability to protect users from hate speech. On top of numerous instances of data misconduct, as well as, the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal in which the political consulting firm improperly harvested data of up to 87 million Facebook users, Viber sees Facebook’s hate-speech stumble as the last straw. As such, the messaging app is taking the #StopHateForProfit movement a step further, cutting all business ties with Facebook.
Djamel Agaoua, CEO, Viber, said, “Facebook continues to demonstrate poor judgment in understanding its role in today’s world. From the company’s mishandling of data and lack of privacy in its apps to its outrageous stand of avoiding the steps necessary to protect the public from violent and dangerous rhetoric, Facebook has gone too far. We are not the arbiters of truth, but the truth is some people are suffering from the proliferation of violent content, and companies must take a clear stand.”
The actions to delete the relevant Facebook touchpoints from the Viber app are expected to be done by the start of July 2020. Ad spending on Facebook will cease effective immediately.
