MUMBAI: Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar has announced that he has “permanently” deleted his account from social networking website Facebook.
“Good morning. This is to inform you all that I have permanently deleted my personal Facebook account. However, the verified FarhanAkhtarLive page is still active,” Farhan posted on Twitter.
Good morning. This is to inform you all that I have permanently deleted my personal Facebook account.
However, the verified FarhanAkhtarLive page is still active.
— Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) March 27, 2018
Though the actor did not into further details and did not mention the reason for quitting the platform, the 44-year-old’s move comes after Facebook faced worldwide criticism over the claims that Cambridge Analytica, the UK data analysis firm hired by Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, harvested and misused data of 50 million members.
Akhtar’s move follows a series of similar moves by Elon Musk, Cher and Jim Carrey.
As the #DeleteFacebook movement gathered momentum, celebrities joined the chorus and quit the social media platform.
Last week, verified Facebook pages of Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX and electric carmaker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) disappeared, minutes after the Silicon Valley billionaire promised on Twitter to take down the pages when challenged by users.
“Delete SpaceX page on Facebook if you’re the man?” a user tweeted to Tesla Chief Executive Musk. His response: “I didn’t realize there was one. Will do.”
Facebook pages of SpaceX and Tesla, which had millions of followers, are no longer accessible.
Musk had begun the exchange by responding to a tweet from WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton on the #DeleteFacebook tag.
The hashtag gained prominence after the world’s largest social network upset users by mishandling data, which ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica – a political consultancy that worked on US President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
Singer Cher also removed her Facebook page on the same day.
Further, last month Jim Carrey tweeted: “I’m dumping my Facebook stock and deleting my page because Facebook profited from Russian interference in our elections and they’re still not doing enough to stop it.”
