Facebook executive calls WhatsApp co-founder low-class
Acton started WhatsApp with Jan Koum. Facebook acquired the messaging service about four years ago for $22 billion. Acton quit Facebook a year ago and Koum too left the company in April.
In an interview with Forbes published on Wednesday Acton alleged that Zuckerberg was in a rush to make money from the messaging service and undermine elements of its encryption technology CNBC reported.
Slamming Acton for his allegations Facebook s David Marcus who ran Facebook s messaging products before starting the blockchain group earlier this year said that the global roll-out of end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp happened after the acquisition and with Zuckerberg s full support.
"Yes Jan Koum played a key role in convincing Mark of the importance of encryption but from that point on it was never questioned " Marcus wrote in a Facebook post expressing his "personal views".
"Mark s view was that WhatsApp was a private messaging app and encryption helped ensure that people s messages were truly private " he added.
Speaking on the business model Marcus said that Zuckerberg protected WhatsApp for a very long period of time.
Acton according to Marcus actively slow-played the execution of a paid messaging service.
"... while advocating for business messaging and being given the opportunity to build and deliver on that promise Brian actively slow-played the execution and never truly went for it " Marcus wrote.
"Lastly -- call me old fashioned. But I find attacking the people and company that made you a billionaire and went to an unprecedented extent to shield and accommodate you for years low-class " he said.
"It s actually a whole new standard of low-class."
Facebook got another jolt this week when Instagram founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom quit the company late on Monday.
Founded in 2010 Instagram was bought by Facebook for $1 billion in 2012.
--IANS gb/sed
