Messaging app Viber has announced that it is severing all ties with social media giant Facebook. The app says “Facebook’s data violations and failure to combat violent rhetoric” are the reasons it came to this decision.
Viber adds that it plans to remove Facebook Connect, Facebook SDK, and Giphy from its app by July 2020. Also, the messaging app will cease all ad spending on the social networking platform.
Viber points to Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal as a major cause for concern. It further calls Facebook’s inability to curb the spread of hate speech following George Floyd’s killing “the last straw.”
“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.
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“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,” Viber CEO Djamel Agaoua said in a statement.
Viber says it hopes the decision serves to “level up” the Anti-Defamation League and NAACP’s #StopHateForProfit movement. The movements are calling on Facebook’s advertisers to pause their ad spending on the platform during the month of July 2020 in light of the proliferation of hate speech.
The messaging app, Viber is owned by the Japanese multinational company, Rakuten, and has over 1 billion users.
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