Playboy has reportedly deleted their Facebook page following headlines that a data firm allegedly used users' information to meddle in the 2016 presidential election. (REUTERS)
Playboy magazine announced Wednesday that it deactivated its Facebook page amidst revelations that Cambridge Analytica had used the social media platform to obtain private information on tens of millions of users and manipulate them with ads, the New York Daily News reported.
Cooper Hefner, Playboy’s chief creative officer and son of the magazine’s founder, tweeted early Wednesday that Facebook’s “content guidelines and corporate policies” continue to contradict Playboy’s “values.”
Facebook, Hefner’s tweet reads, “continues to be sexually repressive.”
Hefner goes on to say that the “recent meddling in a free U.S. election further demonstrates another concern we have of how they handle users’ data,” adding that “more than 25 million” of those affected by the meddling “are Playboy fans.”
Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who may appear before Congress, apologized for the scandal with ads in multiple U.S. and British newspapers Sunday, saying the social media platform doesn’t deserve to hold personal information if it can’t protect it.
Despite Playboy’s main Facebook page having been taken down, other versions in foreign countries – like Germany and the Philippines – are still up.
The move marks the latest installment of a wider-reaching #deletefacebook campaign. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla have also deleted their Facebook pages. Sonos, the California-based speakers company, announced they were pulling advertising from Facebook and donating the money to a digital rights non-profit group.
Facebook relies prominently on selling targeted ads to advertisers based on users’ data. In the wake of scrutiny, stocks for the social media company have reportedly dropped near 20 percent in the last two weeks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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