Experts Call For Facebook To Be Broken Up After WhatsApp Privacy Update

Facebook caused a massive stir recently when it updated the privacy policy of its WhatsApp messaging platform. The change, which would allow WhatsApp to share user data directly with Facebook, flies in the face of promises that Mark Zuckerberg had previously made to keep the two entities separate. And this seemingly broken promise has been the last straw for some experts, including one who openly called this week for Facebook to be broken up.

“We cannot let Mark Zuckerberg’s use one of the world’s most important messaging services as his latest data goldmine,” digital rights advocate Burcu Kilic wrote in The Guardian. “We must ensure a right to privacy for all. We can begin by putting a stop to Facebook’s latest move against WhatsApp users. But Facebook has shown, once again, that when it comes to data exploitation there are no promises it won’t break. Given Facebook’s business model, predicated on privacy invasion and consumer exploitation, Facebook should never have been allowed to acquire WhatsApp.”

Facebook historically deals with stiffer regulation in Europe than it does here in the States, so calls like this one have more teeth there. However, Facebook has designed its products in such a way that it could be incredibly difficult to separate them. But even though its unlikely to happen anytime soon, public pressure for Facebook to reform is still a valuable tool to hold the company accountable. 




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