When Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger cease to work in the biggest outage in history, what do social media addicts do? And how does Facebook communicate with its almost 2.9 billion users? They flee to Twitter.
With just three words, the @twitter account amassed more than 1.65 million likes, over 335,000 retweets and nearly 120,000 quote tweets within hours after the Facebook services went down, reports Business Insider.
It took the engineers at Facebook six hours to fix a faulty configuration change, but not before Mark Zuckerberg saw his personal wealth depleted by almost $7bn (R105bn). The misery couldn’t have come at a worse day for the beleaguered Facebook CEO who had to field fires after a whistleblower alleged that the social media network placed profits before safety. Facebook’s stock plunged nearly 5% and the social media giant suffered an estimated ad revenue loss of $79m.
The outage has shone a light on many ills: Facebook’s “toxicity” for one, its monopoly and massive reach through its interconnected social media platforms, and especially our digital addiction. For WhatsApp users especially, losing the encrypted messaging service is a life-halting change, as it means calls and messages to friends and family can go unanswered, neighbourhoods “watchdogs” are disabled and customer service requests go unaddressed.
While we’re back online, for Zuckerberg the misery is far from over. Whistleblower Frances Haugen is set to testify before the US Senate today.
Meanwhile, in the markets, risk sentiment soured after the dollar firmed and US bond yields rose, pushing the rand over R15 to the greenback. “News this morning of another Chinese property developer missing bond repayments has put further pressure on risk-sensitive currencies, and we have the rand trading weaker at R15.08. The R15.20-level is now back in play but will likely be dependent on further dollar strength,” reports TreasuryONE.
Here’s a roundup of the world’s top and most interesting headlines:
SA Business
IEC ditches foggers for 1 November after spending R7m on registration weekend – Daily Maverick
Sasria gets R3.9bn boost from Treasury, vows to clear unrest claims backlog – Fin24
Checkers takes aim at Woolworths with new upmarket stores – Business Insider
Global Business
World leaders scramble to limit ‘Pandora Papers’ damage – AFP
Europe divided over response to soaring, ‘unbearable’ energy prices – Euronews
Blue Origin is officially sending William Shatner to space – The Verge
Markets
Asian markets follow Wall St plunge as oil surge fans inflation fears – AFP
US close: Stocks record heavy losses as bond yields rise – Sharecast
Africa tower operator IHS eyes R120-billion valuation in NYSE listing – TechCentral
Opinion/In-depth
Is the resource curse hard-baked into African economies? China’s approach hints that it may not be – The Conversation
Green transition to renewables is a massive job creator — South Africa can learn from Denmark’s mistakes – Daily Maverick
XI’s five key battles at the end of China’s runaway growth –SupChina
Video
Can your boss force you back to the office? – Bloomberg
Pro athletes getting paid in crypto – The Street
Pandora Papers: Jordan’s King Abdullah II collected luxury homes while accepting international aid – CBC
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