Facebook Reeling?

We are seeing some interesting things happening with Facebook. Zuckerberg is suddenly finding himself in a world of hurt. Is this something that he can get passed? Only time will tell but there are some headwinds he is encountering.

The week started with Facebook and its family of applications being down for 7 hours. Zuckerberg claims it was an internal error yet few believe that. It is most likely a hack, something the company is going to do its best to cover up. As we will see, this is par for the course with Facebook.

There was also testimony in front of a United States Senate subcommittee. Frances Haugen, who is now becoming known as the Facebook whistleblower, issued some damning testimony against the company. We are already starting to see some grandstanding from Senators as they get on their soap boxes.

What is the impact of this? We will have to see how things unfold but there was this Tweet sent out Monday.

Whistleblower Testimony

The testimony of Ms Haugen ranged from very embarrassing to truly damning. At best, the company is going to have to explain its position which is rather obvious. For Zuckerberg, there are a host of things that could really hit him personally.

According to CNN Business, these were the four highlights of her testimony:

Facebook has taken limited action to address existing misinformation
Facebook has misled the public about the negative effects of its platforms on children and teens, especially young girls
Facebook's mechanics further the spread of misinformation
Facebook knows its platforms enable human exploitation

All of this is scandalous although it is not anything new. Most had an idea that Facebook did all these things. Perhaps, the degree that it engages in this behavior and how much it is core to the business is surprising to some.

As bad as this is, there is another piece to this puzzle that could be fatal to Zuckerberg.

She has reportedly filed at least eight whistleblower complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that the company is hiding research about its shortcomings from investors and the public.

This could have serious implications on Zuckerberg. Running afoul of the Securities Law when people are out for you is never a good thing. It seems like Commissioner Gensler might get a few phone calls from Capitol Hill asking about the state of these complaints.

Senator Edward Markey is already out there calling for answers.

Of course, he focused upon the protection of children. Give it some time before someone starts calling for an investigation into the financial dealings of the company and what Zuckerberg is hiding. As CEO, he signs a liability statement when submitting the quarterly earnings. If the material they provide is hiding damaging information, he could face criminal charges.

Often this type of stuff is overlooked, unless someone has it in for you. Then the selective prosecution ratchets things up.

Transition From Web2 To Web 3

The headwinds Facebook is encountering will only serve to enhance the battle that is taking place. It is not, however, the main focus of the war.

Breaking up Facebook will do little, overall, to stem the tide. Ultimately, it would do nothing more than spread the ownership of the applications, not alter the way they operate.

After all, they are Web 2.0 applications. Forming 3 or 4 companies out of it does not materially change what these applications are for. In short, they are designed to accumulate data that is sold. Surveillance Capitalism is at the core of this. Thus, the breaking up of Facebook would only shift who profits.

For this reason, our foray into Web 3.0 is vital. We need to establish the platforms that take back our data, putting it out of control of the likes of Zuckerberg. This is where a blockchain like Hive enters the picture.

Hive has 3 second transaction time and zero direct transaction costs. This is something that is overlooked within the cryptocurrency industry. Many are discussing decentralized social media. However, how can that exist where fees are assessed for each transaction? Few will want to pay even a nominal amount to give an upvote or leave a comment.

This is why many of the proposed solutions will have a tough time gaining any traction. We know that people want to interact without charge. Of course, on the Web 2.0 platforms, there is a price that is paid and it is one's data.

Nevertheless, for most, this is not of great concern.

Basically, it all comes back to our development. We need to produce the applications that can provide the functionality that Web 2.0 offers along with the freedom of Web 3.0. At the moment, the features are lagging behind to a large degree. However, as time passes, we will see more functionality roll out from the web 3.0 developers.

The Metaverse

Zuckerberg made news over the last few weeks with more announcements of how he wants to make Facebook a metaverse company. This is in keeping with where the Internet eventually will head. For all his faults, Zuckerberg does have a keen sense of where things are going.

This latest episode of ills for the company show why it is vital that Zuckerberg be cut off from achieving this end. Recently, a plan was revealed for Facebook to develop the Metaverse in a responsible manner. Does anyone really believe the company has any intention of doing this?

The situation with Oculus shows how vital this is. To start, anyone who wants to use that VR headset requires a Facebook account, in good standing, to utilize it. Since this will be tied to one's wallet holding tokens and other NFTs, if one gets banned, all that is inaccessible.

There is another problem that was exemplified with the outage yet did not receive much attention. When Facebook went down, guess what happened to the ability to use the headset. Not only were people not able to access the Facebook applications, they could not engage with any site via their Oculus headset.

In other words, the potential exists for the entire Internet to be cut off because of one company.

It is not a situation that we can allow to happen.

When people talk about the Metaverse, it is this idea of an open, interoperable forum where people are free to go where they want and the siloed system of today does not exist. We can presume this is the last thing that Zuckerberg, or any other technology CEO, has in mind.

In summary, the present state of affairs for Facebook are of benefit to our march towards Web 3.0. However, it is not what we should base our movement upon. Depending upon politicians and government is never a good idea. It is in our best interest, and that of humanity, to provide an alternate system that far surpasses what the likes of Zuckerberg have to offer.

And that is exactly what Web 3.0 is going to do.

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