The fates have conspired to give Facebook the week from hell with a prolonged outage yesterday, wiping billions off share prices as well as a whistleblower accusing the company of placing “profit over safety” on primetime TV in advance of a hearing before US senators today. The six hour break in service was deemed to be an internal configuration fault which shut down not just the internet feed but also entry into the building for engineers trying to fix it.
Francis Haugen, a former product manager, hired to help protect against election interference, who leaked a trove of internal company documents to the Wall Street Journal which have created its deepest crisis since the Cambridge Analytica scandal – has now stepped into the open. She said FB had lied to the public, exaggerating the progress it had made tackling hate, violence, and misinformation on its platform.
“There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. Over and over again, [it] chose to optimise for its own interests, like making more money.” FB’s shares have dipped 13 per cent since the WSJ began publishing its series in mid-September.
Mark Zuckerburg, 14 May 1984 2.39pm White Plains New York, whose Taurus Sun is conjunct Algol, with Venus close by, opposing Mars Moon Saturn in Scorpio isn’t one to panic or over-react to pressure. But he’s in a long run of tr Uranus hard aspects to his Scorpio/Taurus planets, jangling him this year, more so in 2022/23/24. The Eclipses from this November’s Taurus Lunar Eclipse and on through 2022 into 2023 will also rattle up a good going series of crises, so he’ll have to change whether he likes it or not. His Progressed Mars will conjunct his 2nd house Saturn in 2022 which could see a major financial setback.
What is odd about the Facebook IPO chart, 18 May 2012 11.31am is the Jupiter in Taurus which tr Pluto is trine at the moment and should be instilling confidence not the reverse. Though admittedly tr Saturn square the Midheaven won’t help and there will be disappointments with tr Neptune hitting the financial Venus and Mars/Uranus midpoint earlier this year and throughout 2022.
There’s also a further calamity from 2nd to 10th December this year which shows up on Zuckerburg and the IPO chart.
The original FB chart, 4 February 2004, is jolted, jangled and nerve-stretched this year and next with the disruptive and uncertain tr Saturn square tr Uranus hitting on the Neptune Sun in Aquarius; with financial woes in 2022/23 from tr Neptune conjunct the Venus; and worse problems in 2023/24 as the dead-halt tr Pluto squares the Mars in Taurus.
Any thoughts on the name change to Meta announced yesterday?
Thank you, Marjorie. I wonder if his Sun conjunct Algol is the reason for his cold, dead, stoney gaze?
Solar Eclipse 12 Sagittarius (Square Neptune) Dec 4/21 is also conjunct Zuckerberg’s Uranus when The Saturn Square Uranus is conjunct Venus opposition Saturn.
Appropos of nothing I loathe Facebook and zuckerberg.
My gut sank with foreboding when it usurped Myspace, which had real community and creativity.
Social media companies have been taking a battering and getting the blame put on them since Saturn moved into Aquarius. That’s not a shame.
They built their networks in the early days by inviting you to upload your email address book to invite friends. I’m not sure it is allowed under today’s junk mail / privacy laws.
They serve the purpose that chatting over the back wall, in the corner shop or going to the pub once did. Place to moan, gossip and tell jokes to cheer each other. As well as replacing holiday postcards, personal letters and Christmas cards to an extent. Honestly can’t believe some of my highly educated friends think that Facebook and Twitter are relevant places to try and persuade others about politics, vaccination or whatever.
Yes, GD, agree with every point you’ve made here. Saturn has barely moved in (6degrees) and isn’t even going to put his feet under the table until the floors are swept clean!– so I expect this is just the start of something. We are all going to have to get a bit more serious about how we communicate to large groups of people and to discriminate more about what we absorb or disseminate. As one who is no fan of social media, never having any accounts or apps except for WhatsApp, I’m looking forward to and hoping to see more individual (Aquarius) responsibility (Saturn) and less ceding to a “bigger” authority in most areas involving groups, not just social media. It is interesting though that the same people who claim to want their voices heard without censorship or curtailment are actually so willing to hand over so much of “themselves” to these large and largely anonymous entities!!
Indeed. I stopped using Facebook about four years ago but it has become such a large part of most people’s social communication that you’re out of the loop, if you don’t. And very cleverly, they bought up Whatsapp which is the other way groups of people stay in touch. Even my local council use it (along with Twitter, Youtube) to stream their meetings.
It’s all very insidious. That Zuckerberg has six of his planets across Taurus/Scorpio ‘scares’ me – he’s doing this out of pure self-interest and money.