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As the Greek Mythology quotes,

“What happens when Zeus combats Hades; there is only one word for that; Total Annihilation.”

That’s pretty much how it looks like in the tech world at the moment. As the news circulates the international media, the recent debacle of data loss by Cambridge Analytica has left Facebook scrambling at the bottom of the ocean with its undefeated champion Mark Zuckerberg (actively performing the role of Hades) defending his social media platform in full throttle, struggling to pull his brainchild out of the deep. It is no secret that the young CEO of the global giant was already in the throes of convincing his audience not to opt out since last year. Finally, when we thought that most of his problems are behind him, he found himself stuck in another rut. Only this time, government authorities are scratching at his back.

Although we were hoping that the tech community would rally to his aid, it seems like we all held quite the wrong ideology. Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and SpaceX, chose to take up arms against him and why shouldn’t he? After all, the social media platform is accountable for more than 50 million worth of data loss. Elon (in the hide of Zeus) joined a burgeoning group of tech leaders who were abandoning the social media platform in a case of mass exodus. Elon Musk joined the #DeleteFacebook movement taking down the official pages for two of his companies, SpaceX and Tesla, as soon as he became aware of their existence.

What’s Facebook? — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 23, 2018

Apparently, it’s no surprise that Facebook has been cast unceremoniously into the shadowy depths of the Underworld after a stream of chill-inducing revelations came to being.

As Twitter becomes a raging battlefield for both tech giants, the conflict centered on the prudency of capitalizing on artificial intelligence. Musk is of the belief that people should be cautious when it comes to embracing technologies such as artificial intelligence, as they can have a vast array of repercussions down the road. On the other hand, Zuckerberg feels that people should put more of their trust into it and embrace the advancements in technology by deeply ingraining them in their day-to-day lives.

In fact, during one of his Live Facebook coverages last year, Zuckerberg called Musk a “naysayer”, which is the same as calling someone a pessimist. If a guy who’s venturing to expand his reach into the space is a “worrywart,” if a guy who launched a gateway for secure payments across the world is a “cynic,” if a guy who painstakingly labors 20 hours a day to ensure a sustainable future for the world is a “pessimist,” then I am sorry to say, Mr. Zuckerberg! You make bad judgement calls on people who are actually trying to transform the future. And FOR THE BETTER.

The Big Question?

The only big question which still remains unanswered is whether people are actually planning to cut down their time spent on Facebook?

According to USA today, almost 18.4% of avid users claim that they are spending less time on Facebook as compared to the previous year. But, Facebook itself hasn’t revealed any official statements confirming the fact yet. When David Wehner (the chief financial officer at Facebook) was questioned, this is all that he had to say:

“We are not willing to provide any specific update on that.”

This sent their audience into a haze of cloud and created more confusion altogether. The only bit of detail that was extracted was how Facebook has seen a rise in certain types of posts and witnessed a decrease in the passive video consumption.

Also, Wehner hinted at a flattening out of Facebook’s growth during the second-quarter with the new EU privacy policy in effect. He believes that this policy can greatly damage their advertising revenue, which is one of the most vital supporting financial pillars of the platform itself.

But, a shocking reveal from the Pivotal Research Group analyst, Brian Wieser , claims that the company’s profitability curve is going to go down the charts in the coming days. According to Mr. Wieser,

“We think the company is going to continue facing more negative usage trends in the coming days”

A Bust Long Needed

In the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica indignity, Facebook executives took quite a laid back approach towards identifying the data breach. Voices were raised regarding the security of information and personal identity, but the social media platform turned its head the other way. A much needed serious action was delayed until Mark Zuckerberg was dragged in for a Congressional hearing, where Facebook was forced to heed some attention to the recent fiasco. As a result, the platform went to a great length to tweak its privacy policies, but it was too late to make amends… the damage was already done.

Here’s how the Facebook Stocks soared down after the hearings conducted on the April 9th and 10th.

(Image Courtesy: YCharts April 23rd, 3:17 PM EDT)

As market reaction shapes the future of the platform, one question still persists: why can’t we be completely sure of how long lasting the effect of #deletefacebook movement is? The government hasn’t issued any heavy handed regulations for the social media platform yet, which still promises a growing future for Facebook.

One way or another, the technology community (including Elon Musk) is not inclined to risk their personal lives and so shouldn’t we!

Until, next time, cheers.

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