Facebook’s Libra May Be Losing Key Supporters Amid Growing Regulatory Uncertainties

The controversy around Facebook’s Libra continues as some of its backers are trying to distance themselves from it. At least three of the main supporters have met in private to discuss a potential retreat from the project as the regulations experience strong resistance, as reported by the Financial Times.

The severe backlash from politicians and the investigation by EU antitrust officials are constantly raising concerns within Libra, causing some of the previously announced supporters to back off. CryptoPotato reported previously that even Facebook themselves warned its investors that Libra may not come at all.

Lack of Support for Libra

The Libra Association began its online venture with a bang when it was first announced in June. Facebook’s project attracted a serious amount of media attention quickly, however not all of it was what the backers expected.

28 members made a non-binding agreement to invest a minimum of $10 million in the project hoping to create yet another alternative in the global payments market. Some of those names include giants like Uber, Spotify, MasterCard, Visa. A few of the massive names like Vodafone, Spotify, and Uber expressed their concerns about the regulatory scrutiny, saying that their public support of Libra may attract the same attention from regulators on them.

One of the backers stated that: “Some of those conversations [about regulation] should have taken place before the launch, to understand how regulators would think about this, so there wasn’t so much pushback,”.

This lack of public support reportedly embitters Facebook and a representative said that Facebook is tired of being the only people putting their neck out.

Libra’s Future

The uncertainty behind the project continues to increase after a strong statement was released earlier this month from data protection officials from the US, UK, EU, Canada, and Australia. The main concerns were raised over privacy and the potential risk of tax evasion and money-laundering.

The lack of specific privacy information on how would Libra operate and protect its users and the speedy launch timeline, brought the attention from the officials.

With other concerns raised previously from politicians, regulators watching closely, and even a G7 “Libra” Task Force, Libra appears to have a long way before its potential launch in 2020.