A US lawmaker said Facebook should pause the launch of its Libra crypto-currency. This is coming hours after the social network formally announced the project.
Libra which is set to be launched next year will let people make payments via Facebook’s apps and WhatsApp.
The chairwoman said the company should wait until the US Congress has examined the project. She is the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee.
Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters said: “Given the company’s troubled past, I am requesting that Facebook agree to a moratorium on any movement forward on developing a crypto-currency until Congress and regulators have the opportunity to examine these issues and take action,”
She laid her stance on the firm’s history of controversies involving user-data.
A Facebook spokesman said: “We look forward to responding to policymakers’ questions as this process moves forward,”
Facebook plans to allow its users to buy Libra and store it online in a digital wallet called Calibra from whence it will be transferable between users and could eventually be used to pay bills or buy things.
US Senator Sherrod Brown said he thought Facebook had become “too big and too powerful”. “We cannot allow Facebook to run a risky new crypto-currency out of a Swiss bank account without oversight,” He said.