Twitter joined fellow social network platform Facebook in capping off a disastrous week, with the company’s stock value plunging a stunning 19% after reports of a declining user base.
According to CNBC, the technology shares plummeted Friday following an internal financial report that showed users declining from 335 million to 338 million in the second quarter of 2018.
“Twitter removed about 70 million accounts in May and June, but Twitter chief financial officer Ned Segal said most of those were not included in its reported metrics because they were not active on the platform for 30 days or more,” writes CNBC.
The social network came under fire in recent days after accusations the platform was “shadow-banning” conservative voices; meaning they were blocking users from receiving content without the author’s knowledge.
The President weighed-in on the underhanded tactic this week, saying “Twitter ‘SHADOW BANNING’ prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.”
Twitter “SHADOW BANNING” prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2018
FACEBOOK FAIL: Obama Campaign ‘SUCKED’ Private User Data During 2012 Election
As the controversy surrounding Facebook’s alleged cooperation with outside entities continues to swirl; new information shows former President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign mined the social network’s user data to help reach likely voters, reports Fox News.
Carol Davidsen, Obama’s former Director of Integration and Media Analytics, confirmed the campaign’s use of Facebook’s “social graphs” -illustrations that map users’ varying connections- on Twitter, saying “Facebook was surprised we were able to suck out the whole social graph, but they didn’t stop us once they realized that was what we were doing.”
“They came to office in the days following election recruiting & were very candid that they allowed us to do things they wouldn’t have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side,” she added.
I worked on all of the data integration projects at OFA. This was the only one that felt creepy, even though we played by the rules, and didn’t do anything I felt was ugly, with the data.
— Carol Davidsen (@cld276) March 19, 2018
Facebook was surprised we were able to suck out the whole social graph, but they didn’t stop us once they realized that was what we were doing.
— Carol Davidsen (@cld276) March 19, 2018
Davidsen’s admission comes as Facebook finds itself in hot-water over their policies permitting outside factors to impact the US electoral system.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department indicted 13 Russian nationals for exploiting Facebook in order to sway American voters.
FACEBOOK FAIL: Zuckerberg Loses $16 BILLION in FIVE MINUTES as Shares PLUNGE
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg lost an estimated $16 billion in five minutes Thursday following a disastrous second quarter earnings report; raising serious questions over his future at the helm of one of the world’s largest social media platforms.
Zuckerberg has been struggling to right the ship for months following a string of privacy-related scandals; pledging to crackdown on “fake news,” racism, and foreign meddling in the US election system.
“The extent of the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the new European privacy law, known as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is not yet clear. In the U.S. and Canada, Facebook’s daily active users remained flat sequentially at 185 million, while the number actually fell in Europe, falling to 279 million, down from 282 million,” writes Fox News.
“We plan to grow and promote certain engaging experiences like Stories that currently have lower levels of monetization, and we are also giving people who use our services more choices around data privacy, which may have an impact on our revenue growth,” said CFO David Wehner.
Read the full story at Fox News.
