1. FB Removes Live NZ Video Killings
A gunman in Christchurch, New Zealand targeted two mosques, killing 49 people and injuring 20. He live-streamed his attack on Facebook, using a head-mounted GoPro to capture the tragic event. The content spread to YouTube and Twitter and linked to a manifesto, the shooter wrote. The police informed Facebook of the video, which it worked quickly to remove along with the gunman’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. “We’re also removing any praise or support for the crime and the shooter or shooters as soon as we’re aware,” said Mia Garlick, a Facebook spokesperson in New Zealand. YouTube and Twitter also worked to remove content, but users have continued to find alternate versions of the video on social media platforms. Who is the shooter? A 28-year-old man was charged with the crime and posted on Twitter under the name Brenton Tarrant. He shared photos of machine guns leading up to the shooting. In his manifesto, he mentions video games Fortnite and Spyro the Dragon, seemingly creating a narrative to keep terrorism in the news. At the beginning of his live stream, he said “remember, lads, subscribe to Pewdiepie,” YouTube star Felix Kjellberg who has been accused of making anti-Semitic jokes. Kjellberg responded in a tweet.
Just heard news of the devastating reports from New Zealand Christchurch.
I feel absolutely sickened having my name uttered by this person.
My heart and thoughts go out to the victims, families and everyone affected by this tragedy.— ƿ૯ωძɿ૯ƿɿ૯ (@pewdiepie) March 15, 2019
We can’t always control what happens, but we can control how we respond. Hopefully, social media giants can respond by removing all content from the mass shooting.
2. Facebook Down for 24 Hours
On Wednesday, Facebook, along with its other platforms, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, suffered the longest outage in the company’s history. Users across the globe were either unable to login to their accounts or experienced limited functionality. Ironically, Facebook turned to Twitter to get a message out to the public, assuring users that the outage was not due to a cyber attack:
We're focused on working to resolve the issue as soon as possible, but can confirm that the issue is not related to a DDoS attack.
— Facebook (@facebook) March 13, 2019
Not everyone’s convinced by Facebook’s comment. In the past, it’s taken weeks for tech giants to admit to this kind of a cyber attack. While one user complained about having to post an aesthetic photo of his dog on Twitter instead of Instagram, advertisers suffered even greater losses. “Being unable to access Facebook and Instagram has caused significant disruption to our business and to our clients today. We have clients that spend up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per day advertising on those channels,” Akvile DeFazio, founder of her own advertising agency, told AdAge. Facebook’s stock price has gone down about 2% since the outage. Yesterday, Facebook announced a reason for the shutdown. What is it? Apparently, the problem was the result of a “server configuration change”:
Yesterday, as a result of a server configuration change, many people had trouble accessing our apps and services. We've now resolved the issues and our systems are recovering. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate everyone’s patience.
— Facebook (@facebook) March 14, 2019
Thanks for the status update, Facebook!
3. Most Downloaded E-Commerce App
We’ll give you a hint… it’s not Amazon. Amazon may be able to offer affordable pricing and premium services but one company has a step up due to its even lower pricing. Wish is a San-Francisco-based company, and has recently become the 3rd largest global marketplace in the world by its number of sales alone. The average Wish user scrolls through 600-700 items before making a purchase and 80% come back for a second purchase. Currently, Wish is surpassing all of its competitors due to its marketing but struggles with the quality of its products. Every week, 8M products are cut and the goods are known for arriving broken, late and possibly counterfeit, losing out on $190M annually. “It’ll never be perfect,” admits Tung, a GGV investor for Wish. “You get what you pay for.” Wish may not have the best reputation when it comes to quality goods but they make bank when it comes to low shipping costs (due to an agreement between China Post and the U.S. Postal Service), big marketing campaigns (one of the biggest advertisers on Facebook) and not to mention their 3-year $30M contract to sponsor the Lakers.
(Source: The Hustle)
