Stephen King Quit Facebook, Too

Master of horror Stephen King (via Mark Lennihan/AP)

Stephen King is the latest high-profile user to ditch Facebook over misinformation and privacy concerns.

The author and activist on Saturday announced via Twitter that he’s “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,” King wrote, encouraging fans to follow him and corgi Molly on Twitter.

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) February 1, 2020

The King of Horror—known for writing “Carrie,” “The Shining,” “It,” “The Green Mile,” “The Dark Tower,” and more than 70 other novels, collections, and non-fiction books—is not the only one fed up with Facebook’s promises.

Earlier this month, Star Wars actor Mark Hamill renounced the social network, accusing chief Mark Zuckerberg of valuing profit over “truthfulness.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi followed the Jedi Master’s lead, alleging during a press briefing that Facebook cares only about financial gain and “misleading” the country.

Following a September ruling that politicians are “exempt” from third-party fact checking, Facebook recently announced changes to its political ad system.

New functions like searching for advertisements with exact phrases, grouping similar plugs, and filtering content will allow for “more efficient and effective research,” according to the firm.

Except, instead of sifting out falsehoods promoted by party members, the updates will simply boost confirmation bias and spread misinformation without verification.

“This does not mean that politicians can say whatever they like in advertisements on Facebook,” Rob Leathern, director of product management, wrote in a blog post.

Which is to say: hate speech, harmful content, and messages designed to intimidate or stop people from exercising their right to vote are prohibited. But misleading adverts are A-OK.

King has deleted his Facebook account, which, according to CNET, boasted 5.6 million followers. Anything bearing his name or profile picture on the site are fan pages and book groups.

More on Geek.com:

• New Year, New Facebook: Social Network Introduces More Privacy Tools
• Facebook ‘Technical Issue’ Translates Chinese Leader Name to ‘Mr. Shithole’
• Facebook Bans ‘Misleading’ Deepfakes

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