Shares of Facebook Inc fell again on Monday after the U.S. consumer protection regulator made public its investigation of how the social network allowed data of 50 million users to get into the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
Scrutiny by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which generally confirms the existence of an investigation only in cases of significant public interest, adds to pressure by lawmakers in the United States and Europe for Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to explain how his company handles user data.
Facebook shares fell as much as 6.5 per cent, briefly dipping below US$150 for the first time since July 2017, before recovering the day’s losses to close up 0.4 per cent at US$160.06.
The shares are still down 13 per cent since March 16, when Facebook first acknowledged that user data had been improperly channeled to Cambridge Analytica. The company has lost more than $70 billion in market value since then.
At the day’s session low the company had lost US$100 billion in market value since March 17, when newspapers first reported that Facebook member data was improperly used by consultants Cambridge Analytica to target U.S. and British voters in close-run elections.
Here’s what the chart looks like since March 19th.
The company also faces rising discontent from advertisers and users. U.S. auto parts retailer Pep Boys on Monday suspended all advertising on Facebook, joining internet company Mozilla Corp and Germany’s second largest bank Commerzbank which made a similar move last week.
Opinion polls published on Sunday in the United States, Canada and Germany cast doubt over the trust people have in Facebook as the firm ran advertisements in British and U.S. newspapers apologizing to users.
Fewer than half of Americans trust Facebook to obey U.S. privacy laws, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday, while a survey published by Bild am Sonntag, Germany’s largest-selling Sunday paper, found 60 per cent of Germans fear that Facebook and other social networks are having a negative impact on democracy.
Nearly three-quarters of Canadian Facebook users say they will make at least some change to how they use the social media platform in the wake of a data mining scandal.
NuthinButNick on March 26th, 2018 at 21:49 UTC »
That's the problem with using your real name online. It's too easy to keep a permanent database on everyone's public moments.
godsenfrik on March 26th, 2018 at 19:27 UTC »
The only thing keeping me from deleting FB permanently is that I would probably lose any way of contacting some friends acquaintances from various places around the world that I have met over the years, and I may want to contact them in the future. Other than that FB is a waste of time.
BBQDad72 on March 26th, 2018 at 18:26 UTC »
Facebook has been on a steady decline. How many of you are tired of clicking on to the next page to try to read something interesting? How many times have you opened an article and had your link hijack to a spinning wheel that says you want some kind of prize trying to steal your information? How many times has the description of a Facebook article had something interesting on it but you had to read through 12 separate pages of crap before you found the interesting information? And that is on top of having to read about people you went to high school with spout out in a disgruntled manner about politicians they hate!!