The incident shows that there is a need for more competition, wrote the EU Commissioner for Competition and Digital Margrethe Vestager on Tuesday on Twitter. Former Facebook manager Frances Haugen was expected in the US Congress on Tuesday.
After a configuration error, the 3.5 billion users – more than every third inhabitant on earth – of the Facebook platform, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger were unable to access the services for hours. Many then turned to competitors such as Twitter, TikTok and Signal. According to the fault platform DownDetector.com, it was the largest outage ever recorded.
“Don’t rely on a few players”
Vestager took the opportunity to point out the dominance of the tech company: “You can’t just rely on a few big players.” That is also the aim of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The new regulations for the control of large technology groups are currently being worked on at the EU level. The general manager of the industry association Bitkom, Bernhard Rohleder, pointed out that it is particularly important for companies to “distribute their own communication over several channels and to have alternatives that can be used in the event of a failure of the primary services used”.
Former manager: “Facebook one of the greatest dangers”
The former Facebook manager Frances Haugen was expected in the US Congress on Tuesday and is likely to describe her former employer as “one of the greatest dangers” for the country and call for more transparency in order to better regulate the company. The power of the world’s largest internet network has fueled discussions about stronger regulation for years. Facebook is currently driving the allegations of the former product manager Haugen, according to which the US group is putting profit-making over the fight against hate speech and false information. Haugen has filed at least eight complaints with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and will speak to a subcommittee of the US Senate on Tuesday.
According to her statement, she will advocate regulating Facebook. In doing so, she compares the Internet giant with suppliers of cigarettes, whose consumption over many years is harmful to health. “The company’s management team knows ways to make Facebook and Instagram more secure and does not make the necessary changes because they put the immense profits above the people,” Haugen wants to say. Facebook was initially not available to comment on this. With regard to the failures, Facebook’s technology boss Mike Schroepfer wrote on Twitter: “I’m sorry.” At the same time, he said that it could take a while before everything ran smoothly again.
