Fixing the problems caused by Facebook turned out to be easier than everyone thought. Just turn off the site! Today’s global outage affecting all parts of Facebook seems an appropriate coda to the spate of news stories about Facebook’s negative impact on society in recent weeks. The New York Times opined that the recent spate of revelations in The Wall Street Journal portrayed a company in decline, its “best days…behind it.” Well, nothing says you’re in decline like not being able to operate (Facebook’s services began coming back online late this afternoon).
Bigger picture, though, the idea that Facebook may have peaked seems logical, even without considering how recent revelations could be affecting morale and the company’s ability to operate. With 1.9 billion daily active users at June 30, about a quarter of the world’s population, along with intense antitrust action globally, what are its prospects for growing much bigger? It faces more vigorous competition from the likes of TikTok and Snap than at any time in its history. And while its ad business has lately been growing like gangbusters, growth has to slow, if only because of the law of large numbers.
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