American lifestyle and entertainment magazine Playboy is the latest participant to join the exodus from Facebook over allegations of users’ private data leak. The announcement was made by Playboy Enterprises on Instagram with chief creative officer Cooper Hefner calling the platform “sexually repressive.”
Facebook’s content guidelines and corporate policies continue contradicting our values. We’ve tried to craft our voice, for the platform, which in our opinion, continues to be sexually repressive. Learning of the recent meddling in a free US election further demonstrates another concern we have of how they handle users’ data – more than 25 million of which are Playboy fans – making it clear to us that we must leave the platform.Cooper Hefner
The announcement by Playboy comes a week after billionaire Elon Musk deleted the Facebook profiles for both of his companies – SpaceX and Tesla – admitting he didn't even know they existed.
According to media reports, Cambridge Analytica used an application designed by the Russian academic Aleksandr Kogan to illegally access the data of around 50 million Facebook users.
The information was used for targeted campaign advertisements, "micro-targeting" to sway voters in favour of casting their ballot for US President Donald Trump or to vote Leave in the British referendum.
In 2011, Facebook promised to ask for the consent of its users before making certain changes in their privacy preferences, as part of an agreement with the government, which accused the firm of abusing consumers by sharing with third parties more information than users had authorised.
The #deleteFacebook hashtag has trended online in recent days, with many celebrities across the world also quitting the platform.
(With inputs from IANS)
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