After bombshell whistleblower interview, Facebook outage lasts hours
CHICAGO - A double-whammy for Facebook: first a bombshell whistleblower interview, and then a massive service outage.
Facebook was back up by Monday evening, along with its platforms Instagram and Whatsapp. The outage started just before 11 a.m. CST and impacted billions of users worldwide across its family of apps.
"Facebook's not having a great week," said Carl Prouty, Technologist for Abt Electronics.
"Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests like making more money," Frances Haugen, a former Facebook Project Manager, told '60 Minutes.'
Haugen brought forth documents indicating the company knowingly puts profits ahead of public safety — an allegation the company hasn't flat-out denied.
"The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was: there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook," said Haugen.
Less than 24 hours after that bombshell interview, Facebook had its biggest outage since 2019, and its longest ever. Facebook hasn't announced the cause, but tech insiders think it was an internal error.
"Nothing seems terribly nefarious yet," said Prouty.
Facebook's stock was down 5-percent after the interview and during the outage — personally costing Mark Zuckerberg an estimated $7-billion, according to Bloomberg.
Facebook posted a statement apologizing for the outage: "To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we're sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us."
"You kind of have to keep your ears and your eyes open this evening and tomorrow morning to make sure they don't make any other big announcements that could impact your personal information," Prouty said.
Haugen is set to testify before Congress on Tuesday.