Facebook Asked to Cancel Libra Cryptocurrency Over “Privacy & National Security” Issues
The US House of Representatives' committee on financial services has penned a letter to Mark Zuckerberg requesting a halt to the development of Facebook's cryptocurrency, Libra, Forbes reports.
The letter comes in the wake of Facebook's less than shiny track record regarding security and data protection, and raises various concerns about Libra's potential disruption of the global economy.
“It appears that these products may lend themselves to an entirely new global financial system that is based out of Switzerland and intended to rival US monetary policy and the dollar,” the committee wrote. “This raises serious privacy, trading, national security, and monetary policy concerns for not only Facebook's over 2 billion users, but also for investors, consumers, and the broader global economy.”
Elsewhere in the letter, issues such as regulation, exploitation, cybersecurity, hacking, and money laundering were raised: "Facebook is already in the hands of over a quarter of the world's population, it is imperative that Facebook and its partners immediately cease implementation plans until regulators and Congress have an opportunity to examine these issues and take action."
The letter ends, "Failure to cease implementation before we can do so, risks a new Swiss-based financial system that is too big to fail."