The exodus of 11 senior executives from Facebook spells trouble, warns a Wall Street Brokerage firm that downgraded the stock of the social-media giant.
Facebook’s chief product officer and the founders of Instagram are among the recent departures, noted Needham, which downgraded the stock on Monday to a hold rating and warned clients of further resignations, CNBC reported
Needham analyst Laura Martin wrote, according to CNBC, that Facebook’s pivot toward privacy and encrypted messaging, rising regulatory risk and the upload of disturbing content will accelerate the management exodus in what she called a “Negative Network Effect.”
Last week alone, Facebook was hit with criticism over the livestreaming of the New Zealand mosque attack on the platform combined with a 24-hour stretch of intermittent access, its longest outage ever.
Donald Trump Jr.: Public discourse at state
Meanwhile, in a guest column for The Hill, Donald Trump Jr. warned that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other big tech firms are threatening the right of conservatives to engage in public discourse.
“From ‘shadowbans’ on Facebook and Twitter, to demonetization of YouTube videos, to pulled ads for Republican candidates at the critical junctures of election campaigns, the list of violations against the online practices and speech of conservatives is long,” he wrote.
He said his suspicions were confirmed when Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, “accidentally” censored a post he made regarding the Jussie Smollett hoax.
The incident, he said, prompted messages from hundreds of his followers citing recounting similar censorship.
Trump Jr. pointed out that James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas exposed Facebook’s development of algorithms to “deboost” certain content, limiting its distribution and appearance in news feeds.
Terms typically used by conservatives such as “Mainstream media,” “SJW” (Social Justice Warrior) and “red pill” were designated as red flags, according to a former Facebook insider.
The president’s eldest son concluded there is “no conservative principle that even remotely suggests we are obligated to adopt a laissez-faire attitude while the richest companies on earth abuse the power we give them to put a thumb on the scale for our political enemies.”
“If anything,” he wrote, “our love of the free market dictates that we must do whatever is necessary to ensure that the free marketplace of ideas remains open to all.”
