(UnitedReader.com) – It’s been a rough week for Facebook. Shares for the social media platform dropped nearly 5% on October 4, the most significant daily loss since November 2020. Facebook also experienced its worst outage since 2008 this week. Topping things off, a whistleblower gave Congressional testimony this week detailing serious allegations regarding public safety and the use of Facebook.
Aside from an outage so “severe” it was “unheard-of”, testimony from Frances Haugen included accusations that the company prioritized profits over the wellbeing and safety of the public and dented Facebook’s reputation. As one might expect, those controversial allegations, along with the outage, sent shockwaves throughout the general public. Now, some people are calling out the popular social media platform for only caring about one thing, money.
“An outage this severe is almost unheard-of.” @mimbsy talked to @AdrienneLaF about what Facebook's hiccup means for the social network—and the internet: https://t.co/avu5Ic6Wdy
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) October 5, 2021
Facebook attributed the outage to a mistake workers made during routine maintenance. The ensuing blackout showed the world just how much Facebook controls the internet as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram all fell like dominoes. The outage also impacted revenue for businesses that rely on the social media outlet for obtaining page views on their websites and the accompanying lead generation, online sales, and advertising revenue.
The executive editor for The Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance, has covered the app several times in recent years. She wrote that Facebook’s grip on the web is a threat not only to democracy but to humanity as well. Given the whistleblower’s testimony that Facebook only cares about profits, LaFrance just may be right.
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