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Ex-WhatsApp exec, Neeraj Arora, says they regret selling app to Zuckerberg

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Zuckerberg fiercely defends Facebook over misconduct, media leaks investigation

The former Chief Business Officer of WhatsApp, Neeraj Arora, has criticised Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, over the handling of the world’s largest messaging app.

WhatsApp has recorded over five billion downloads since it was founded in 2009 by Jan Koum and Brian Acton. But the founders were not just the significant factor of the firm’s growth, Arora also played a crucial role when he joined in 2011, a year after the app was released on Google Playstore.

Arora also played a key role in the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook, now the tech builder says he regrets helping to negotiate the sale of the messaging platform which cost Zuckerberg $22 billion in 2014.

In a post on Twitter on Thursday, Arora, who now owns another messaging app, Hallo, criticised Zuckerberg for reneging on an agreement that protects WhatsApp users from third party interference.

“As we began talking through the acquisition, and made our stance very clear: No mining user data, No ads (ever), No cross-platform tracking. FB (Facebook) and their management agreed and we thought they believed in our mission.” he tweeted.

“Of course, that’s not what happened.” he wrote. Apparently, WhatsApp users’ data is now shared with Facebook, hence, users find adverts on Facebook relating to their discussion with contacts on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp founders and Arora were anti-data mining and third party sharing, and had reportedly made this known before putting pen on the acquisition deal.

Four years after the acquisition was sealed, a data scandal rocked Facebook, with allegations that it shared users data with a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, without users consent.

Read also:Zuckerberg loses N1.74tn, as shareholders exit amid plan to shutdown Facebook, Instagram in Europe

This prompted WhatsApp co-founder, Acton, to ask people to delete their Facebook app in protest to the data mining and third party monitoring, “It is time. #deletefacebook” Acton tweeted in 2018.

Five years later, Arora is taking his bite on Zuckerberg, “Today, WhatsApp is Facebook’s second largest platform (even bigger than Instagram or FB Messenger).

“But it’s a shadow of the product we poured our hearts into, and wanted to build for the world. And I am not the only one who regrets that it became part of Facebook when it did.” He stated.

Arora further described Facebook as a monster hungry for money in exchange for users data, “Nobody knew in the beginning that Facebook would become a Frankenstein monster that devoured user data and spat out dirty money. We didn’t either.”

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