Jim Carrey calls for Facebook boycott over 'Russian interference' in election
Jim Carrey has said that he’s dumping his shares in Facebook and deleting his personal page, over the site profiting from Russian interference in the US presidential election.
In a tweet, he also suggested that others keen to send a message to the company about its responsibilities should also consider deleting their pages.
“For a long time America enjoyed a geographical advantage in the world with oceans on both sides to protect it,” Carrey said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Now, social media has created cyber-bridges over which those who do not have our best interest in mind can cross and we are allowing it. No wall is going to protect us from that.
“We must encourage more oversight by the owners of these social media platforms. This easy access has to be more responsibly handled.
“What we need now are activist investors to send a message that responsible oversight is needed. What the world needs now is capitalism with a conscience.”
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. I encourage all other investors who care about our future to do the same. #unfriendfacebook pic.twitter.com/KHWgZzhhmp
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) February 6, 2018
Facebook has come under scrutiny for allowing Russian entities to spread both propaganda and fake news stories on the site, as well as other social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube.
It testified to congress last October, admitting that it served Russian-backed content to over 125 million Americans in the time during and after the US election in 2016.
It has also announced that it will provide congress with 3000 adverts linked to a Russian ad agency which were bought over the period of the election.
“As a general rule, we are limited in what we can discuss publicly about law enforcement investigations, so we may not always be able to share our findings publicly,” said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
“But we support Congress in deciding how to best use this information to inform the public, and we expect the government to publish its findings when their investigation is complete.”
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