Facebook's six-hour outage - what was the price?

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, is estimated to have lost $7 billion in less than 12 hours.

Facebook symbol  (photo credit: REUTERS)
Facebook symbol
(photo credit: REUTERS)

As of 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, Facebook stock took a nose-dive and was down by 4.89%, after Monday night's blackout, when the company's servers all crashed at once, leaving millions of users without Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp or Messenger platforms.

It took six hours for the social media giant to recuperate. WhatsApp returned in Israel to full operation only 8 hours after the original outage.

The Internet was a raging sea without its usual posting outlets, with some users comparing the event to a Black Mirror episode and using apocalyptical humor to vent frustration. 

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, is estimated to have lost $7 billion in less than 12 hours. This unbelievable sum also brings him down a notch in the list of richest people in the world, according to Bloomberg, placing him after Bill Gates at number 5.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg listens while testifying before a joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees hearing regarding the company’s use and protection of user data, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis (credit: REUTERS/LEAH MILLIS)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg listens while testifying before a joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees hearing regarding the company’s use and protection of user data, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis (credit: REUTERS/LEAH MILLIS)

In addition to Facebook's collapse, Amazon lost about 2.85%, also reporting technical difficulties during the most significant worldwide social media paralysis in years. 

Surprisingly, Twitter took the hardest hit of the night. Although the app became the holy grail for addicted social media users and the most active platform while its competitors were down, at the end of the day, its value plummeted 5.79% in 24 hours. 

The assumption is that Twitter was affected just like Snapchat (which dropped 5.34%) and Facebook when whistleblower Frances Haugen accused the organization of prioritizing profit over user safety concerns.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell by 2.14% in a day, bringing it to its lowest point in the past month of steady decline.

The long-term outcome has yet to be fully felt; however, in light of the difficult statements made by Haugen on money-making vs responsibility, on service and misinformation, it seems that this week will be a harsh reality check for the social media world. 

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