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Jim Carrey wants you to unfriend Facebook over Russia

The actor-comedian is asking investors to sell their shares amid concern the social network profited from Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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Steven Musil
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Jim Carrey is worried that Facebook profited from Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.

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Jim Carrey is so mad at Facebook that he is dumping his stock in the company and urging others to do so as well.

The comedian said Tuesday he's deleting his Facebook account and selling his shares in the company because the social-networking giant may have profited from Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.

"We must encourage more oversight by the owners of these social media platforms," Jim Carrey said in a statement to CNBC. "This easy access has to be more responsibly handled. What we need now are activist investors to send a message that responsible oversight is needed. What the world needs now is capitalism with a conscience."

In a tweet using the hashtag #unfriendfacebook, Carrey asked all "other investors who care about our future to do the same."

Carrey's campaign comes amid criticism of Facebook's handling of ads during the 2016 US election. The world's largest social network, along with Twitter and Google, have been scrutinized in recent months by Congress after US intelligence agencies determined that the Russian government had used these platforms to disseminate false news and advertisements in an attempt to influence US elections in 2016.

Facebook told the Senate Judiciary Committee in October that about 126 million Americans, or roughly one-third of the nation's population, were exposed to Russian-backed content on Facebook during the 2016 presidential election.

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The social-networking giant also said in September it had identified about 500 "inauthentic accounts" that bought $100,000 worth of ads that targeted highly politicized social issues such as immigration, guns and LGBT rights.

Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

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