Thought you were having a bad day? Zuckerberg just dropped from fourth to sixth richest person on Earth

By Jack Ramage

Published Oct 5, 2021 at 02:33 PM

Reading time: 2 minutes

23273

Yesterday evening, the world went black. Well, Facebook did—as well as Instagram and WhatsApp. And as quickly as it takes to refresh your newsfeed, Zuckerberg’s fortune took a big hit. Poof… Just like that, his wealth declined by $5.9 billion. He now has a mere total value of $117 billion—dropping him down to only the world’s sixth-richest person (down from fourth). A moment of silence, please.

What actually happened?

The smack to Facebook’s stocks came from two sides. First, an unusually long outage of its platforms, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, which I’m sure if you’re as addicted to social media as me you would’ve either experienced first hand or enjoyed the memes on Twitter which ensued following the outage.

The blackout lasted 5 hours: a mistake that likely cost the company tens of millions of dollars in revenue. A statement from the social media giant confirmed that the cause of the blackout was a configuration change to the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between the company’s data centres.​​ Although outages have happened in Facebook’s past—notably one in 2019 which lasted for 14 hours and another in 2008 that lasted a complete day—the recent outage, which occurred 4 October 2021, affected Facebook’s internal systems too. This meant that it was impossible for employees to access emails, the internal messaging system—known as the Workplace—and, alarmingly, even impacted the access of some doors at the company’s headquarters.

Secondly, Facebook is also dealing with the repercussions of last week’s Congressional hearing, where a former product manager, Frances Haugen, is testifying about her decision to become a whistleblower and leak internal data to the Wall Street Journal. In an interview on 60 Minutes, she criticised Facebook for putting “profits over people” and failing to maintain safeguards against misinformation after the 2020 presidential election.

So, is this the killing blow for Facebook? Pfft. Do you really think a measly scandal and outage could take down this tech giant? As soon as the servers came back up, we all scrambled back to the eternal news feed scrolling. Like a moth to a flame. A habit I’m also guilty of. In fact, Facebook’s stocks have proven to be surprisingly durable over the past few years of scandals—including last year’s ad boycott and posts of the January 2021 riots suddenly vanishing from the site. Shares have remained at near-record highs, closing Monday 4 October at $365, a more than 150 per cent increase in five years.

Forget about Zuck’s wealth: the outage showed us how reliant we all are on tech giants

For some the outage of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp was an inconvenience—the infuriation of the buffer wheel: the way it relentlessly spins right back at you, in an almost taunting manner. For others, it may have been a much-needed relief from the 24/7 bombardment of the social media news cycle.

However, across the globe, there’s no doubt the blackout of these services caused some disruption. In Mexico, politicians were cut off from their constituents. In Brazil, pharmacies stopped receiving prescription orders. And in Colombia, a nonprofit organisation that uses WhatsApp to connect victims of gender-based violence to lifesaving services found its work impaired.

Unfortunately, as the world becomes more interconnected—and consequently reliant on technology—social media will continue to become an influential machine that keeps the world turning. In my opinion, at least, there’s no going back—and no reason to go back, considering the benefits seamless communication, which is largely accessible to the masses, can bring. What we do need to evaluate, however, is how much trust we put in tech companies to keep society moving. It’s not an issue of if Facebook’s services go down again, it’s when. And when that time comes, it’s important we’re prepared. At least we’ll always have Twitter to vent our worries through though, right?

Keep On Reading

By Charlie Sawyer

Not only are BMI scores sexist, racist and anxiety-inducing, they’re also massively inaccurate

By Louis Shankar

BlueSky sees 300% surge in users after 2024 US presidential election

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Was Adam Sandler kicked out of the 2025 Oscars or was it staged? Fans speculate after his fiery outburst

By Abby Amoakuh

YouTuber Yung Filly faces new allegations of rape and assault in Magaluf after British tourist comes forward

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

From immigration to gender identity, Trump’s orders threaten an exclusionary future for the US

By Emma O'Regan-Reidy

The cozy gaming trend is empowering women to dominate space in a male-centred industry

By Joe Pettit

Why the internet made a CEO’s killer its new sex symbol

By Abby Amoakuh

UK search engines are now promoting tutorials on how to create deepfake porn

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

TV host Andy Cohen faces cancellation over substance abuse, harassment, and exploitation allegations at Bravo

By Abby Amoakuh

Pregnant women in the US more likely to die from murder than complications, cancer, or accidents

By Abby Amoakuh

Amandla Stenberg faces colourism backlash for role in Children of Blood and Bone

By Abby Amoakuh

Blake Lively faces backlash for calling herself Cherokee in resurfaced L’Oréal diversity ad

By Abby Amoakuh

From Andrew Garfield to Cillian Murphy, why are Gen Z women obsessed with slutty glasses?

By Charlie Sawyer

From his beef with Taylor Swift to losing Justin Bieber’s loyalty, here’s why Scooter Braun is in his flop era

By Charlie Sawyer

Casey Anthony is officially back in the spotlight. And she’s calling herself a legal advocate on TikTok

By Charlie Sawyer

Donald Trump’s new press secretary Karoline Leavitt, 27, is the mouthpiece for right-wing Gen Z

By Charlie Sawyer

Donald trump to accept $400M luxury plane from Qatar royal family

By Abby Amoakuh

White women can’t just use the 4B movement to swear off men, they also need to hold each other accountable

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Trump launches his 2028 presidential campaign, ignoring constitutional limitations

By Charlie Sawyer

Penn Badgley praised for opening up about fatherhood and raising sons on Call Her Daddy