Post with caution on Facebook. Trust your instincts

Facebook faces a perception and trust problem. Trust deficit to be precise and more appropriate because it has become larger than what it was expected to be — a basic forum that connects people. The channel that Mark Zuckerberg created has, over the years, grown to be a wider platform for the world media itself. It is both social and news, and despite a decline in numbers with the rise of other upstarts like Instagram, Facebook still holds sway as the social media channel and platform of choice. When Facebook cannot compete with newbies that threaten its dominance, it simply buys them out like in the case of Whatsapp and Instagram. How it manages these new acquisitions and the main FB platform is the issue here, and this is where it has been found to be wanting in its integration and security process. The founders of both Whatsapp and Instagram have since left it, Instagram founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, only last week.

Zuckerberg and the top management of the platform know that the world has changed from 2004 when FB was founded in a Harvard room when it connected a small college community of students, then took on the world in 2006. Early success resulted in growth at a break-neck speed. Soon business boomed. Ads poured in, there was money to spread around and deals and acquisitions to make as it went global. The numbers were on FB’s side and Zuckerberg went shopping to grow the business. Yes, it had become a business of virtually connecting people and making money out of it. FB connected big businesses, too, and made a virtue out of it. With over two billion users, $11.97 billion in revenue and $4.98 billion in profits last quarter, Zuckerberg is certainly on a high, and is remaking and remodelling FB the way he deems fit. In fact, the FB founder has the world in his hands, a world he realises he can’t really control online. The latest breach that exposed 50 million users is a reminder that a bigger Facebook is harder to secure. The good news from the latest FB breach is that it was contained. The bad news is that it could happen again as more people are drawn to the allure and anonymity of the virtual life. Zuckerberg cannot be expected to patrol the social media platforms he owns. He is no virtual cop, even if he is a tech genius. The mass sale of user data exposed chinks in the FB model earlier. Attacks like these prove that users must police themselves to prevent the ignominy of losing their details to hackers online. In the end, it’s a matter of trust, not in FB’s security apparatus, but in simple human instincts.