The fallout since the revelation of Cambridge Analytica's probe into Facebook's servers, which ultimately saw the firm mine personal data from 50 million profiles, has been harsh and sudden. Shares for the social media company plummeted once again on Monday after the public was notified of the FTC's investigation into this particularly alarming scandal.
Lawmakers in both the United States and Europe have been pressuring the FTC to gain significant insight into how Facebook Chief Mark Zuckerberg and his company handle and protect user data.
Yesterday, Facebook's shares dipped as much as 6.5 percent to $150 USD, the first time since July 2017. However, just before the markets closed, the company was able to rise a mere 0.4 percent to $160.06.
Collectively, their shares have fallen a steep 13 percent since March 16, after Facebook had recognized that their user data had been improperly mined by Cambridge Analytica; they have now lost nearly $70 billion in market value.
The most widely used social media platform has also been experiencing some growing discontent with advertisers. Pep Boys, an American auto parts retailer, has joined Mozilla Corp and Germany's second largest bank Commerzbank in pulling any advertising content off of Facebook's servers.
New polls are also concretizing the general public's growing ambivalence towards the company, as they continually bring to question how well-regarded their privacy actually is.