Facebook unhappy with Burger King’s friend-removal promo

Despite the popularity of an application encouraging users to eliminate 10 Facebook friends to obtain a Burger King Whopper coupon, the site has asked for the application to be removed.

The application, created by fast-food chain Burger King, surged in popularity as more than 233,906 profiles were “de-friended”. Usually, if a user “de-friends” a profile, the person is not notified. But the Burger King application clearly informed the person that they were “sacrificed for a Whopper”.

But Facebook wasn’t happy, and demanded the application be removed from the site.

“We encourage creativity from developers and brands using the Facebook platform, but we also must ensure that applications follow users’ expectations of privacy. This application facilitated activity that ran counter to user privacy by notifying people when a user removes a friend,” Facebook said.

“We have reached out to the developer with suggested solutions. In the meantime, we are taking the necessary steps to assure the trust users have established on Facebook is maintained.”

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