It’s time.

Earlier this year, around four years after Facebook bought WhatsApp for $16 billion (R189 billion), co-founder Brian Acton [above] left the company to start his own foundation. The other co-founder, Jan Koum, continues to lead the company.

Although it’s unclear what Acton feels about his own app, last month he invested $50 million (R592 million) into Signal, an independent alternative to WhatsApp.

I reckon that gives us some kind of idea.

And, as of yesterday, we definitely know how Acton feels about WhatsApp’s parent company.

The Verge reports that, on Wednesday, Acton posted this tweet:

Acton, who is worth $6,5 billion (R77 billion), did not immediately respond to a request for comment and WhatsApp declined to comment.

However, Acton is not the first former Facebook executive to speak negatively about the platform:

Last year, former head of growth Chamath Palihapitiya caused a firestorm after saying “we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.” Other former executives to express regrets include Sean Parker, Justin Rosenstein, and investor Roger McNamee.

A bit confused over what is happening? Read up about the recent revelations about Cambridge Analytica’s misuse of user data. Publishing a personality test that thousands of Facebook users took voluntarily, the data analysis company was able to collect personal data and use parts of it to influence American election results in Donald Trump’s favour.

If you want – or have to – keep on using Facebook, here’s a great explanation on how to change your privacy settings.

Otherwise, just deal with the consequences, I guess.

[source:theverge]