Author Stephen King Quits Facebook Because Of Fake News

Renowned best-selling author, Stephen King, announced on February 1 that he is quiting Facebook. The reason he gave was that he was uncomfortable with the "flood of false information allowed in its political advertising".

The author also took aim at Facebook's inability to protect users privacy.

King who is well-known for his scary novels made the announcement on Twitter, where he has 5.6 million followers. His tweet has already generated more than 250,000 likes.
However, the novelist decision to leave Facebook does not mean that he is quitting the social network altogether. Users can still follow him and his dog Molly on Twitter. Below is the tweet written by King.

I'm quitting Facebook. Not comfortable with the flood of false information that's allowed in its political advertising, nor am I confident in its ability to protect its users' privacy. Follow me (and Molly, aka The Thing of Evil) on Twitter, if you like.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing)

Stephen King is not the first famous person to quit Facebook. Others who have left the social networking giant include Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, comedians Will Ferrell and Jim Carrey, musician Cher, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Jim Carrey, who left in 2018, also sold his Facebook stock, citing the fact that the firm had profited from Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

Facebook has refused to change its policy on how it fact-checked political adverts, arguing that private companies like them have no right to censor politicians. This has not gone down well with many people who think that Facebook just want to make money from the ads.

By contrast, Twitter announced in October that it would ban all political advertising. Most political adverts are often responsible for the spread of many misleading information in order to damage rival's party or politician's reputation.

Twitter's decision has garnered praise from the public and politicians alike.