Facebook Faces Celebrity Exodus Amid Controversy Over Allowing Political Ads

Steven King, Elon Musk, and Others Withdraw One After Another

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Facebook, the world's largest social media (SNS) platform, which is embroiled in controversy over its policy allowing political advertisements, is suffering from the withdrawal of celebrities.

According to recent reports from CNN and other local U.S. media, Steven King, the world-renowned author famous for works such as "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Misery," wrote on Twitter, "I am uncomfortable with allowing political ads to be flooded with false information," and added, "I also doubt whether they have the ability to protect users' privacy." Subsequently, King's Facebook account was deleted.

Following this, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, also joined the criticism.

Musk left a message on Twitter with the hashtag '#DeleteFacebook' along with the phrase "It's lame."

This was a reply to British actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who posted tweets criticizing Facebook.

As the host and producer of the American political satire show "Who is America," he targeted Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, asking, "Why allow one person to control information viewed by 2.5 billion people?" and argued, "Facebook should be subject to government regulation, not the rule of an emperor."

The actions of Cohen and Musk appear to be criticism of Facebook's announcement last month that it would continue to allow political ads containing false information targeted at specific groups. Musk has publicly criticized Facebook for some time.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.