Bay Area Business Counting Their Losses After Massive Facebook Outage
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- Businesses here in the Bay Area and around the world suffered serious losses Monday when Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp all went down for several hours.
Small business owner and full-time college student Cassidy Cunha saw a full day of profits disappear - around $300. Cassidy makes polymer clay earrings for her business Clay and Trinkets. She's now looking into email marketing giving herself a backup from solely relying on Facebook and Instagram.
"We plan out everything we're going to post to fulfill the algorithms of those social media sites, so when something like that happens, it just throws our whole business off and we lose profit for that day," Cunha said.
Eugene Lee is the CEO and co-founder of Channelmeter, which both manages creators and is a payment platform for those making a living off of the social sites. He hopes that the shutdown, combined with whistleblower Frances Haugen's interview on 60 Minutes and testimony Tuesday in Congress pushes change forward at the social media giant.
"What they're hoping for is a system where there is more transparency, better policing of not just the bad behaviors of the members but actually the governing body - Facebook itself."
Watch The "60 Minutes" Interview
In an interview with CBS News reporter Chris Van Cleave, Monika Bickert, Facebook's VP of Policy says the C-suite is dedicated to safety.
"Everybody who is working on these issues at Facebook, starting with Mark, but continuing on down on these safety teams cares about these issues."
