2018 Could Be Devastating For Facebook Due To Impending Regulations

Facebook had a great year in 2017 in terms of its financial performance, with sales growth projected to go up by 46 percent and its net income nearly doubling. However, some are seeing the walls closing in on the social media giant. Due to the numerous political debacles that Facebook got mixed up in, the social network has gained the full attention of regulators all over the world.

As a Bloomberg opinion piece by Leonid Bershidsky points out, Facebook has been enjoying a fairly unregulated and untaxed growth since it started. This may change in the coming years, however, with regulators zeroing in on many of the social network’s issues. These include Facebook supposedly losing its original purpose of bringing people together and is instead treating users as cash cows.

This has resulted in the company becoming instrumental in actually fracturing society, as former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya recently alluded to while talking about social media as a whole. His words echoed the same sentiments of the social network’s first president, Sean Parker, who has since cut back on his social media use precisely because of how it affects people’s interactions.

Facebook reacted rather scathingly to these accusations, essentially saying that Palihapitiya didn’t know what he was saying, CNBC recently reported. It’s worth pointing that Palihapitiya didn’t specifically talk about Facebook in his statement criticizing social media.

“Chamath has not been at Facebook for over six years. When Chamath was at Facebook we were focused on building new social media experiences and growing Facebook around the world. Facebook was a very different company back then and as we have grown we have realised how our responsibilities have grown too,” Facebook’s statement reads.

At this point, however, Mark Zuckerberg’s company has earned a sordid reputation among regulators and those who have not jumped on the Facebook bandwagon. The social media giant is now seen as dangerous and a threat to the stability of society. This could translate to additional regulations on the social media industry, which could include increased liability in the spread of illegal content.