7 celebrities who have quit Facebook over data concerns: From Stephen King to Jim Carey

Author Stephen King recently decided to delete his Facebook account 
Stephen King announced he has deleted his Facebook account
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Tim Baker5 February 2020

Legendary author Stephen King has announced that he is “quitting” Facebook as he no longer is confident in Mark Zuckerberg’s company’s ability to protect users’ privacy.

The bestselling writer of It was also unsettled by the “flood of false information that’s allowed in its political advertising”.

Mr King is not the first big name to remove themselves from the website - and some former big names within Facebook have forsaken their former employer.

Most of those quitting highlighted user privacy as a concern as well as Facebook’s refusal to crackdown on misleading political advertising.

A slew of stars left after the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed in the 2018.

If you're thinking about dropping the social media platform, these celebrities and their reasons might just persuade you.

Brian Acton

Former Facebook employee Brian Acton left the company and tweeted #deletefacebook
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for WIRED

Just after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, Whatsapp founder Brian Acton tweeted “It is time. #deletefacebook”.

Mr Acton left Facebook the year before over concerns that Mark Zuckerberg and his company wanted to sell adverts on the Whatsapp platform, which had been purchased for more than $20 billion.

Speaking to Forbes, he said: “They are businesspeople, they are good businesspeople.

“They just represent a set of business practices, principles and ethics, and policies that I don’t necessarily agree with.”

Cher

 Cher left Facebook and accused the company of being money-hungry
Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Cher, of Turn Back Time fame, left Facebook back in March 2018.

The singer deleted her account, later saying that it was due to the online companies like Google and Facebook having no allegiance to “anything but money”.

She tweeted: "Won't use Google, getting rid of Facebook account I didn't know I had."

However, the 73-year-old singer continues to use Twitter, where she has 3.7m followers.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk deleted his own Facebook account, as well as the pages belonging to Tesla and SpaceX
AP

Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk is known for his vocal social media presence, which has seen him require a lawyer’s say so if he wants to talk to his followers about financial matters.

Like Cher, Mr Musk deleted his personal Facebook account in 2018.

He went on to delete the accounts for his companies from the platform.

Mr Musk has said he does not like Facebook as it “gives him the willies”.

Jim Carey

Jim Carey sold off his shares in Facebook
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

The actor and comedian turned his back to Facebook back in February 2018.

As well as removing his official account, the Bruce Almighty star announced that he was dumping his stock in the company.

He said in a tweet: “Facebook profited from Russian interference in our elections and they’re still not doing enough to stop it.

"I encourage all other investors who care about our future to do the same. #unfriendfacebook.”

Mark Hamill

Mark Hamill has said that Facebook places too high an emphasis on money (Jason Merritt/Getty )
Jason Merritt/Getty

Star Wars main man Mark Hamill left Facebook in early 2020 over the company’s policy on political advertising.

He said that Mark Zuckerberg “values profit more than truthfulness” after the company said they would not ban politicians from running adverts with lies in them.

The Luke Skywalker actor added: "I know this is a big 'who cares?" for the world at large, but I'll sleep better at night."

Facebook argued that the decision about advertising should be made by the government and not private companies.

Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell deleted his account following the Cambridge Analytica scandal
Getty Images

The anchorman star deleted his Facebook following the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

In a statement to his fans, the funnyman said: “I know I am not alone when I say that I was very disturbed to hear about Cambridge Analytica's misuse of millions of Facebook users' information in order to undermine our democracy and infringe on our citizens' privacy.”

He added: “In this day and age, with misinformation running rampant, it's important that we protect the truth, as well as those who work to bring it to light.

“I can no longer, in good conscience, use the services of a company that allowed the spread of propaganda and directly aimed it at those most vulnerable.”

Despite the loss of these high-profile celebs, Facebook is doing just fine. In December 2019, the company reported that on average 1.66 billion people log onto the platform, a nine per cent increase year on year.

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