On June 26, Rakuten Viber announced that they will be cutting business ties with the biggest social media platform, Facebook. This move is part of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Color of Change’s online campaign #StopHateforProfit against Facebook, which calls on advertisers to cease ad spending on the social media platform after they failed to protect its users against hate speech.
Viber also cited Facebook’s mishandling of data and privacy issues as part of their decision to part ways with the platform. Part of this is the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where the UK-based political consultant firm harvested data of 87 million Facebook users to boost then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign
“Facebook continues to demonstrate poor judgment in understanding its role in today’s world,” Viber CEO Djamel Agaoua said in a statement. “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 messaging app recently ceased ad spending on the platform and is working on removing Facebook technology from their app. The removal of apps like Facebook Connect, Facebook SDK and Giphy is expected to be completed by early July.
Header photo courtesy of Rakuten Viber
Get more stories like this by subscribing to our weekly newsletter here.
Read more:
Was the surge of fake Facebook accounts just a system glitch? NBI doesn’t rule out possibility
The most valuable resource now is data–here’s how to protect yours from hackers
For the not-so-tech savvy, a guide to keeping your Facebook account secure