Damning whistleblower testimony followed by an epic outage, all along with a multibillion-dollar loss: it’s almost enough to make me feel a bit sorry for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Almost.
First the outage: outages are the spectre that haunts every online company. Internet downtime is effectively a “closed” sign in an online company’s shop window. At best, it’s an interruption to trade, at worst a blow to customer goodwill. If the “closed” sign is up too long or too often, customers simply go elsewhere.
The bigger the company, the more damaging the outage. When Facebook and all its subsidiary companies (Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp) abruptly went completely offline this week, it was both reputation-damaging and expensive. Every hour offline costs Facebook millions. Even worse when, as this outage appeared to do, it brings the entire company to a standstill: reportedly, internal communications were knocked out and some staff were unable to even physically access their workplaces, as computerised doors refused to recognise swipe cards.
Unsurprisingly, conspiracy theorists had a field day. Some claimed it was linked to a supposed hack of Facebook users’ data, although hacking forums sneered at the claim, noting that the alleged hacker was offering just a handful of scraped rather than hacked data. Others linked the outage to an unspecified Deep State Conspiracy.
Of course, it was certain to put a magnet in the conspiracy theorists’ foil hats when the outage followed closely on damning whistleblower testimony about the company’s internal operations.
Scores of internal Facebook documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show employees raising alarms about how its platforms are used in some developing countries, where its user base is already huge and expanding. They also show the company’s response, which in many instances is inadequate or nothing at all.
The same company that routinely bans users for every piddling alleged “violation” of its policies and rigorously censors information about the China virus (in fact, try even using that phrase on Facebook), turns a blind eye to the most appalling criminal activity on its platform.
A Mexican drug cartel was using Facebook to recruit, train and pay hit men.
The behaviour was shocking and in clear violation of Facebook’s rules. But the company didn’t stop the cartel from posting on Facebook or Instagram, the company’s photo-sharing site […]
Employees flagged that human traffickers in the Middle East used the site to lure women into abusive employment situations in which they were treated like slaves or forced to perform sex work. They warned that armed groups in Ethiopia used the site to incite violence against ethnic minorities. They sent alerts to their bosses on organ selling, pornography and government action against political dissent, according to the documents.
Facebook removes some pages, though many more operate openly, according to the documents.
Other leaked documents have shown that Facebook is well aware that its Instagram platform inflicts enormous mental harm on its users, primarily teenage girls. Rather than take steps to reduce the harm from its products, Facebook puts even more effort into recruiting younger and younger users.
Legislators in the US have unfavourably compared Facebook’s behaviour to tobacco companies.
Facebook treats harm in developing countries as “simply the cost of doing business” in those places, said Brian Boland, a former Facebook vice president who oversaw partnerships with internet providers in Africa and Asia before resigning at the end of last year.
The Australian
Frances Haugen, a former product manager hired to help protect against election interference on Facebook, said she had grown frustrated by what she saw as the company’s lack of openness about its platforms’ potential for harm and unwillingness to address its flaws […] documents she gathered as well as interviews with current and former employees, describes how the company’s rules favour elites; how its algorithms foster discord; and how drug cartels and human traffickers use its services openly.
The Australian
Whistleblowers, outages: all of it is costing Mark Zuckerberg in clearly the only place he cares.
Mark Zuckerberg’s personal wealth has fallen by nearly $7 billion in a few hours, knocking him down a notch on the list of the world’s richest people […]
A selloff sent the social-media giant’s stock plummeting around 5% on Monday, adding to a drop of about 15% since mid-September.
The stock slide on Monday sent Zuckerberg’s worth down to $120.9 billion, dropping him below Bill Gates to No. 5 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He’s lost about $19 billion of wealth since Sept. 13, when he was worth nearly $140 billion, according to the index.
My Broadband
So, the Zuck is hardly going to be knocking at the poorhouse door any time soon. Still, $19 billion is a lot of money by anyone’s standards.
But the reputational damage is surely the biggest hit.
Good.
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