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The former chief financial officer of WhatsApp said that he regretted the sale of the company to Facebook that year. For years, early WhatsApp executives have voiced their dissatisfaction with Facebook’s actions.
Neeraj Arora, WhatsApp’s former chief financial officer who joined the company in 2011, said on Twitter that with his participation, Facebook completed negotiations with WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook for $22 billion, and that he now regrets.
Arora said the acquisition initially looked like a collaboration. Facebook promised that WhatsApp leadership would maintain “complete independence in product decision-making,” and promised that Facebook would never integrate advertising and cross-platform tracking on WhatsApp, or mine user data, among other things.
“Facebook and its management agreed to these terms. At the time, we thought we all had the same sense of purpose,” Arora said in a tweet. However, many former WhatsApp executives have stressed that Facebook is not keeping its word.
WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton said shortly after his departure in 2018 that Facebook had considered introducing ads for WhatsApp, but had yet to implement them.
Acton launched a well-known #deletefacebook campaign on Twitter after Facebook’s handling of user data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal came to light. Acton tweeted in 2018: “It’s about time.” And tagged the tweet #DeleteFacebook.
Arora tweeted: “WhatsApp is Facebook’s second-largest platform, even bigger than Instagram or Facebook Messenger. We put a lot of effort into this product and I’m not the only one who regrets WhatsApp being acquired by Facebook.”
At first, no one knew Facebook would become a ‘monster’ that eats user data and spits out dirty money, Arora said.
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