It seems like the whole world shut down yesterday during Facebook’s outage, but what was the cause, and should inventors be worried?
Oct. 5, 2021
People who have been using Signal for their instant messaging needs must be feeling pretty smug this morning.
After almost six hours of outages across all of its services, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is crawling back to life today, but should investors be concerned?
Is it time to sell Facebook shares?
It’s been the month from hell for Facebook really:
- Last night’s six-hour outage will have cost it millions.
- Apple’s iOS updates keep hurting its ad business.
- A whistleblower has accused the company of knowingly harming the mental health of young people.
- That whistleblower revealed herself on Sunday as Frances Haugen, a former project manager on Facebook’s civics misinformation team, and launched a scathing attack against the company in ’60 Minutes’ on Sunday night.
- Its share price is down more than 14% in the past month, as a result
Last night’s outage was bad, but these things tend to happen at tech companies. What investors should be more concerned about is Frances Haugen and the U.S. government’s grilling of the company.
Facebook is facing its biggest crisis since Cambridge Analytica, with Haugen releasing tens of thousands of internal documents that apparently highlight just how far Facebook has gone to prioritize profits over user safety — including decisions that had a direct role in leading to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Ahead of Haugen’s testifying in front of the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection next Thursday, Senator Richard Blumenthal stated:
“We must consider stronger oversight, effective protections for children, and tools for parents, among the needed reforms.”
Will it actually happen though? Investors might want to keep a close eye on this story.
You can read the full Wall Street Journal interview with Haugen here.
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