What if Zuckerberg Is Sending A Notice?

[MineralMan]

"See what I can do if I want. Better call your legislators and tell them to lay off Facebook. I'll restore it pretty soon, but it could happen again at any time, you know..."

Now, that's probably not what happened, but the coincidence is interesting.

[SharonAnn]

1. I would learn to live without it.

[calimary]

6. I already have!

When my kid’s band (for which I was manager) broke up, there was truly no further reason to engage on that platform, at least for me.

So I quit it.

[Trueblue1968]

38. yeah!! Tell Yuck to suck an egg. Green eggs & Ham.

[Wounded Bear]

2. That would be a ton of lost revenue for a "stunt"...

but lord knows he can personally afford it.

[MineralMan]

9. Oh, not really.

But, a lot of people are going to literally panic if they can't use FB. As a strategic move, pulling the plug for a while could send a strong message to those who depend on FB for one reason or another.

"OK, guys! Shut down all of the DNS IP addresses for exactly two hours. Thanks."

Now, I'm not saying that's what happened, but the old "Nice Social Media you got there. I wouldn't want nothing should happen to it, you know, but..."

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. I truly dont think Z is greedy in that he lets FB continue to destroy the human race for money.

I think he thinks he is the defender of raw free speech.

But he is wrong, of course.

Yes he would shut it down to scare people, ever hear of PG&E?

EVERYBODY CHECK your banks, etc...lets see if isolated to these 2.

[PortTack]

4. The world would be a better place without it...they are no better than fux snooz

[Haggard Celine]

7. I agree.

Facebook is where your brain goes to take a shit. It seemed like a nice idea in the beginning, connecting people with their old friends and relatives that they lost touch with over the years. But it has degenerated into a colossal fake news rumor mill. I see very few positive things coming out of Facebook.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. Meh

[hlthe2b]

8. I'd never miss it. I don't miss it today. I don't have too much difficulty believing

that this COULD be intentional, but if it was, I hope it backfires spectacularly.

Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp... can all disappear in a big cloud of pent-up celebrity anxiety and the angst of teens badly needing another hobby, as far as I am concerned.

[MineralMan]

10. Yes, I know you wouldn't. But, you see, you're not someone

Zuckerberg thinks about at all. You're not contributing to the revenue stream, nor are any of the others who eschew that social media venue. As far as Facebook is concerned, you do not exist, really. You're not the audience.

[hlthe2b]

11. Even the addicted can "wake up" to the harm it is causing. Zuckerberg SHOULD be concerned

about THEM.

[MineralMan]

15. Hmm...I think you overestimate.

FB being down has no material effect on me. I don't need to chat with old high school friends from 60 years ago or talk about tubas. I'm also not of interest to Zuckerberg, who earns nothing from my participation on FB.

[hlthe2b]

16. My response was to the world of users, most definitely not you specifically.

Some will continue to use/defend FB no matter what. I get that.

[tritsofme]

12. Sometimes an outage is just an outage.

[MineralMan]

13. Almost always it is just that, yes. Of course.

[lame54]

14. Fascism will just have to wait

[MineralMan]

17. Will it?

Hmm...

[ProudMNDemocrat]

18. A big chunk of my Costuming commissions come from Facebook.

I display my Costuming/Period Clothing work on my FB Business page, get messages via FB messenger for orders, etc.

When seen at events in my work like Renaissance Festivals or Cons, I do have Business cards ready to hand out.

Hope it is back up soon.

[MineralMan]

20. Yes. Many use Facebook in connection with their businesses.

Much of Facebook has nothing to do with politics at all. Most of it, really.

I have a business page there, although I haven't updated it for a long time, since it never really generated much interest.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

22. I was at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival yesterday...

For closing day. Just about every merchandise vendor has a Business page on FB.

Thank goodness I have my portfolio page on Flickr I renew each year where people can view my work.

[MineralMan]

26. Sure they do. Why wouldn't you?

I'm sure there are numerous RenFest-related groups on FB, as well. It's not one of my interests but FB Groups are a very useful thing for groups for almost any niche interest, no matter how tiny. I participate in several such tiny groups.

DU is a political forum, so it tends to look at everything from a political perspective. Most of the hard-core FB detractors here don't use Facebook in any way, so they have no clear idea of how people use the platform.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

28. I belong to several Historical Costuming groups

Here in the US and abroad.

I keep in touch with Histirical costumers in the UK, the Netherlands, as well as here for the various eras I delve in. Plus Community groups for things that interest me.

As well as Pop Culture Groups too.

[MineralMan]

32. Yes. That's the part of Facebook most casual users don't know exists.

There is no interest too arcane that there isn't a FB Group or multiple ones related to that interest. That's my main use of FB. I can chat about weird interests with people who share those interests. Most of the groups I'm in are private and require invitations or have some sort of application system if you want to join.

Facebook enables such groups as a free attraction to join the platform, of course. However, individual users can pretty much shut out everything they don't want to see, so not everyone is exposed to the politically exploitative stuff. I know I never see any of that.

[SYFROYH]

23. Your costumes are fantastic. Incredible attention to detail and quality.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

27. Thank you.

I can be reached here via DU mail as well to answer any questions, provide more information.

[brooklynite]

19. This is a beyond silly assumption...

Do you imagine that if Fox News shut down that it’s viewers would stop being conservative?

If Facebook disappeared tomorrow, it’s users would migrate to other platforms.

[MineralMan]

21. Well, yes, of course.

The odds are very much in favor of it being a garden variety DNS problem. I'm just having a little fun with it, given the coincidence between last evening's 60 Minutes revelations and this sudden down time.

Playing "what if" is always fun.

[CentralMass]

24. I think I'll survive even if it goes down forever.

[Caliman73]

25. We survived before Facebook, we'd survive without it.

I know a lot of people who "live" on Facebook, and that to me is kind of sad. It has its benefits. I have used it to connect with old friends. It also has WAY WAY more draw backs, which is why I rarely if ever use it. I will check in from time to time but NEVER post. My wife left completely.

If this is a threat by Zuckerberg then people need to see that they are being manipulated in very obvious ways. Something will come to replace Facebook, just like Facebook replaced My Space.

[treestar]

29. He would not make money

On it either and that is his first priority I would guess.

[ProfessorGAC]

30. Not Buying It

Being down for a couple hours doesn't show impact to a degree that would back elected officials down
Then, if it got out that it was intentionally done, it would steel the opponents, not cause any backing down.
The risk doesn't match the reward.

[MineralMan]

34. Yeah? Well here's the thing. Go search on Google News for Facebook outage.

It's hot news globally already. Within a couple of hours it has spread worldwide. That's because Facebook is global, itself.

So...it's conceivable that the question I posed could be a valid one. Now, it could also be an attack from outside, or just a screwup somewhere over a typo that crept into the DNS data system. What is a fact is that the DNS system cannot resolve facebook.com to the IP level at the moment. As far as DNS is concerned no such thing as facebook.com exists right now.

Now, there are several ways that could happen. I'm not techy enough to explain what those are, even though I understand them. There are simple ways it could happen and complex ways. I'm a big fan of Occam's Razor, though.

[ProfessorGAC]

44. Doesn't Address My Point

Sorry, but your reply doesn't begin to address the risk/benefit for a company that already has whistleblowers.
The risk of amplifying scrutiny and anger with the gain being the status quo just doesn't make good business sense.
And, I never said it wasn't news. Your title addresses something I never said. That's pretty weak sauce.

[PJMcK]

31. I always like the way you see things, MM

Your scenario isn't really that far-fetched when you consider how vociferously Facebook and Zuckerberg have defended their existence and so-called "mission."

If Trump can rally a cadre of supporters nation-wide, imagine what Zuckerberg could do if he were to coalesce Facebook users behind any campaign he might want to mount. This could be powerfully effective especially if his pitch wasn't along the the usual red/blue lines but somehow about the internet and free speech.

As you wrote, "... that's probably not what happened,..."

[PJMcK]

33. Another thought from the Coincidence Department

Isn't it odd that Facebook went off-line the day after the 60 Minutes whistle-blower interview?

Hmm.

[MineralMan]

35. Yes. That's my point.

[PJMcK]

40. Sorry, I missed your implication since you didn't reference 60 Minutes

I don't watch TV so I was only vaguely aware of the interview.

You've got interesting thoughts, as always.

[Baitball Blogger]

36. It would be okay with me if Facebook ceased to exist, because another

family oriented social media will jump up in its place. Someplace where parents, grandparents, grandkids and school pals can push the shit aside and communicate. Hell, they could call it Buttbook, and it would be fine with me.

I just hope that Facebook gives us one day so we can download our pictures.

[joetheman]

37. I can live without FB. I did before. I can do it again. nt

[Just_Vote_Dem]

39. Here's a conspiracy theory for ya

Outage happens to get minds away from Pandora Papers scandal

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/pandora-papers-biggest-ever-leak-of-offshore-data-exposes-financial-secrets-of-rich-and-powerful

I know that's B.S. but who doesn't like a good CT now and then?

[markpkessinger]

41. I doubt that's the case, but the thought certainly did cross my mind n/t

[RFCalifornia]

42. I think hacktivists took it down, personally

But I'd love to see him try that, and then everyone go to other mediums, with egg all over that Zucker's face

[kentuck]

43. I noticed a name on a document during a news report this AM about the off-shore banks..

I saw the name Heidi Zuckerberg for a fleeting second. Is she related to Mark? Is he hiding all his billions off-shore?

[Mr.Bill]

45. That might be plausible

if he wasn't probably losing a million dollars a second in ad revenue.

[MineralMan]

47. He wouldn't care if he was sending a warning message.

[Mr.Bill]

48. Sorry, but I disagree.

Money is the most important thing in the world to people like him. It's why they have so much of it.

[EndlessWire]

46. It took Instagram with it.

I don't do FB, but IG is major entertainment for me. I won't apologize for that. Everything is screwed up.