01 May,2018 10:53 PM IST | Washington DC | ANI
Jan Koum. Pic/AFP
Washington DC: WhatsApp co-founder, CEO and Facebook board member Jan Koum on Monday announced, in a post, that he is leaving the Facebook-owned company.
"It is time for me to move on . . . I'm taking some time off to do things I enjoy outside of technology, such as collecting rare air-cooled Porsches, working on my cars and playing ultimate frisbee," Koum said in his statement.
ALSO READ
Video shows NY officer fatally shooting 13-year-old
Americans nationwide cast ballots on the last day of US elections
China says disengagement process at LAC going smoothly
Biden and Trump make final appeals to voters ahead of US presidential election
Clashes at Hindu temple in Canada unacceptable, PM Trudeau says
"And I'll still be cheering WhatsApp on -- just from the outside," the statement added.
Koum is departing from the company after clashing with Facebook over its attempts to weaken encryption and make use of user data, according to The Washington Post.
Techcrunch reported that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg commented on Koum's Facebook post about his departure, citing encryption as one of the things he learned a lot about from Koum.
"Jan: I will miss working so closely with you. I'm grateful for everything you've done to help connect the world, and for everything you've taught me, including about encryption and its ability to take power from centralised systems and put it back in people's hands. Those values will always be at the heart of WhatsApp," Zuckerberg wrote.
Koum leaves the company more than 9 years after he and Brian Acton created the messaging app.
He has been with Facebook since February of 2014, when Facebook acquired the messaging startup for $19 billion, according to the reports.
The tiff and Koum's departure come in the backdrop of Facebook's, massive data breach by the analytics company Cambridge Analytica.
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
