Consumer protection groups ask Libra Association members to withdraw from Facebook crypto

Four consumer protection groups - Open Markets Institute, Public Citizen, Demand Progress Education Fund and Revolving Door Project - have urged the 27 founding members of the Libra Association to withdraw from the Facebook-led cryptocurrency project.

The groups wrote an open letter on Thursday to the members, which include Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Uber, urging their non-participation in the project, saying the Libra cryptocurrency will have “significant competitive, political, financial, and social implications.”

The project’s aims are “unclear,” and its leadership structure is “based on fear,” the groups said, adding:

“We understand that Facebook is a powerful company, and that it has in part generated a climate of fear with its market dominance. But if you collectively withdraw from the project, it will signal that the just-beginning era of digital money will be based on fair rules and democratic deliberation, and not intimidation by the powerful.”