What the Facebook Hearings Mean for the Future of the Company and Other Social Media
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently answered questions from the senate and members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
With Facebook currently embroiled in a data privacy scandal, the eyes of the U.S. government and of the world turn to company CEO Mark Zuckerberg as he attempts to clarify what has happened and what may happen next.
During his two days of testimony, Zuckerberg provided answers to numerous questions that have popped up in the wake of the scandal being made public.
Some of Zuckerberg's responses have been revelatory, while others have left people with even more queries that require answers.
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There are some very important takeaways from Zuckerberg's testimony, however, that could be hinting at what's next for Facebook itself and for other forms of social media.
Beginning with the lasting impact that this scandal may leave on the company, it seems that things may be rough for quite a while at least in terms of public perception.
Already, some high profile personalities have been critical of Facebook in the wake of this scandal being brought to light, and among them is Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak.
Wozniak recently told USA Today that he is leaving Facebook behind due to the things that have been made public, and he also expressed concern over how the private information provided by users is being handled.
In all likelihood, Wozniak will not be the only high-profile personality to leave the website, and judging by how popular "#DELETEFACEBOOK" continues to be, other people may have already made the same decision or at least contemplating it.
It would seem like a scandal like this would greatly harm Facebook and perhaps knock it down from its high perch among the tech giants, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
According to a recent report from MarketWatch, shares of the company actually went up 1 percent in the aftermath of Zuckerberg testifying in front of the Senate and the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
It sure seems as though investors are not leaving the company behind even after this scandal, and that bodes well for the financial wellbeing of Facebook moving forward.
So, does this all mean that nothing will really change after this scandal?
Though it may still take some time, it seems like big changes may be made to social media websites.
During Zuckerberg's testimony, he himself acknowledged that some regulation being imposed on the industry is "inevitable."
Exactly how social media websites will be regulated remains unclear at this point in time, but it would hardly be surprising if the U.S. government started looking more into that sooner rather than later.
With some form of regulation in place, there's a good chance that the social media websites as people know them currently will no longer remain the same moving forward.
Considering the sheer number of people who regularly use at least some form of social media, talk about those websites possibly being regulated to some degree should obviously not be ignored.
In a few weeks or months, the scandal involving Facebook may be forgotten, but this scandal may continue to produce ripple effects that will be felt years and even decades into the future.
