The world-famous horror author announces that he leaves the social media platform in a tweet, citing the 'flood of false information' as the reasons why he makes the decision.

• Feb 4, 2020

AceShowbiz - Stephen King has followed in the footsteps of Mark Hamill and Jim Carrey in ditching Facebook. The world-famous horror author officially deleted his account in the social networking site on Monday, February 3, just a few days after he blamed privacy issue concerns for him making the decision.

"I'm quitting Facebook," the 72-year-old novelist announced his move on Twitter last Friday, January 31. "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."

Facebook has been in hot water for weeks after it stood by its decision to allow politicians to run adverts containing false statements under freedom of expression ground. "In the absence of regulation, Facebook and other companies are left to design their own policies," Director of Product Management Rob Leathern said in a blog post in early January.

"We have based ours on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all, and that what they say should be scrutinized and debated in public," Leathern continued. "We are not deaf to that and will continue to work with regulators and policy makers in our ongoing efforts to help protect elections."

Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has also defended his company's policy."I don't think people want to live in a world where you can only say things that tech companies decide are 100 per cent true," he told The Washington Post back in 2019. "And I think that those tensions are something we have to live with."

King's move came just weeks after Hamill announced his decision to delete his account because of its political-ad policies. On January 12, the "Star Wars" star tweeted, "So disappointed that #MarkZuckerberg values profit more than truthfulness that I've decided to delete my @Facebook account. I know this is a big 'Who Cares?' for the world at large, but I'll sleep better at night."

Carrey, in the meantime, left the social networking site two years earlier. Back in 2018, he shared with his followers, "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."