Facebook's horror week and month gets worse; Under performed for American sports entertainment giants - March 2018

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Facebook looking colourful. It's all fun and games until Joe or Jane Doe or another corporate business gets hurt and share prices dive. PR disaster for FB and big tech sector

by Greg Tingle

As they say, the genie is out of the bottle, or the horse has bolted. Choose your analogy, but anyway you slice or dice it, Facebook has enjoyed the week and month from hell.

Talk about a dog with fleas. Cambridge Analytica, the consultancy that worked on the U.S Presidential campaign will now forever live in infamy. There's even a Maroubra, Sydney, Australia connection with a Bra based Aussie who is or was still attempting to sell their wares down under. Talk about a hard fell hey. Dracula is in charge of the blood bank.

Facebook users are "finally starting to recognise that this is not the fun and games, innocent place they thought it was," says McNamee, still a shareholder in the business. "There's been an increasing understanding that when you're using Facebook, a lot of bad things are going to happen to you, as a user."

A tech writer for Slate, Will Oremus, says that it was inevitable: "The real scandal is that this wasn’t a data breach or some egregious isolated error on Facebook’s part. What Cambridge Analytica did was, in many ways, what Facebook was optimised for - collating personal information about vast numbers of people in handy packets that could then be used to try to sell them something."

Ok, so what American based sports entertainment giants are not impressed by Facebook but for different reasons? Try WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and Bellator MMA on for size. Talk about the wrong companies to make enemies out of. Piss them off too bad and you know they would be quite capable of sending the heavies around, but I'll digress.

WWE was "extremely disappointed" in the way that Facebook created and operated the topical, popular and wildly entertaining Mixed Match Challenge, which has been getting broadcast via Facebook, but matches (at least highlights) are also now available on WWE YouTube, WWE.com and WWE Network. It appears that based on leaks from the sports entertainment giant that Facebook way over promised numbers, something that social media giant is notorious for. Keep in mind that WWE programming is some of the most watched viewed entertainment content programming in the world, and has been since before the first WrestleMania - that's back in 1985 friends. WWE are smart operators and have survived a number of their own scandals over the years. This FB scandal isn't just about a wrestler having a huge night out of the town where no one gets hurt, just a hangover, and might miss a flight and a match. Facebook has betrayed the public's trust, lied and manipulated for financial gain. Their competitor, Google, who carries the motto 'Don't Be Evil' had better take head from Facebook's *uck Up, and SnapChat should also do the same. Who don't know where the next Big Tech PR disaster is coming from, but it won't be UBER< because they have already had them from a driver-less car killing someone, stalker drivers, tech maps not working property, sexism rife in the firm, and so it goes on. Corporate America, especially in the tech sector, is skating on thin ice to say the least.

Other sports entertainment and sporting giants who have mixed experiences including the UFC and competitor of sorts, Bellator MMA, whose internet, new media (hence mainstream media) exposure to audience from Facebook and Google has been hampered or imbedded, from lack of viability. This could be due to a number of factor's, but UFC would look to maximise their own exposure and viability, and aim to make other MMA competitors nook next to invisible. By all accounts, the athletes in Bellator are largely just as talented as those in the UFC, and the word in the industry is that a few jumped ship for higher remuneration paydays in the less well known mixed martial arts firm.

We're sure the dirt is going to come in hot and heavy on a daily basis per Facebook, so there's plenty more fodder. Where there's smoke, there's fire, but apparently this is not at white hot bushfire stage. World War 3 has almost broken out across the internet. Cyber War is the term. Not sure what American, Chinese or Australian politicians are going to comment on that, but we're sure they've heard the term.

To be continued.

Is WWE's Vince McMahon about to get hit over the head with a chair by Facebook (sic)

UFC's Dana White and WWE's Vince McMahon have both enjoyed mixed experiences with social media giant Facebook. On occasion WWE performers have gotten in trouble for a range of social media commentary, but Facebook's real issue at hand is betraying the world's trust - both individuals and fellow corporate citizens.

Time to get The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar together to kill off Facebook? (sic)

Is WWE taking a huge gamble is their strong reliance of Facebook?

In actual sporting news, McMahon's XFL to be launched in 2020 has attracted a competitor of sorts with an Eberson family connection. That means big money and smarts are involved.

It's hard not to feel sorry for Bellator. They have been getting less coverage than the UFC via the internet, both web traffic and social media, and this has hampered their efforts to become better known in the United States, Australia and beyond. Does Bellator have a case against Facebook for search engine manipulation or other? Facebook are an easy target at present. To think Facebook was bulling their own customers just a year or two ago, removing content from artists for "terms of volition etc". On occasion Facebook mysterious internet enforcers have called bodyart and bodypaint "nudity". Paint is over. i.e: you don't see the skin. Art is art. Facebook needed a good spanking, and the world's citizens have spoken loud and clear. Facebook's share price has tanked. U2's Bono is consciously quite on the matter at present. The tables have turned. The hunter has indeed become the hunted. It's the of the jungle that is the World Wide Web, ran by people, not robots (usually)

Google takes another bite out of Facebook's dominance. Google had their own troubles for bad behavior a few years ago - in Europe. The E.U brought them back into line. Something about search engine manipulation and unfair and uncompetitiive business practices. Facebook be warned again! Illustration by Eric Lobbecke. (Special thank you to Eric Lobbecke and The Australian).