Facebook celebrates its twentieth birthday this Sunday, remaining one of the most used social networks in Spain more than 20 million users who access it on a daily basis, but with some problems related to the use of personal data and the protection of minors.
The content platform originated as a project developed by a group of students including: Mark ZuckerbergWith Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitzin a room at Harvard University in 2004 and, over the course of its 20 years of existence, has revolutionized the panorama of the Internet, social networks and even new technologies such as the Metaverse.
The original idea was to create a website called The Facebook, through which Harvard University students could open a profile and network with other students. Access to this website was by invitation only and limited to university areas.
However, the idea of creating a profile and sharing tastes and experiences with a community attracted more and more people, so In 2006, Facebook was launched to all internet users worldwide..
Facebook has managed to be a space where users They share their likes, hobbies and daily life, in addition to meeting new people and building community. Because users can create a personal profile in which they can share information such as work, studies and hobbies as well as publish photos and videos.
All this with the ability to add other users as friends and thus see the content they share on their profiles. Likewise, it is a space where you can send private messages or participate in groups through the Messenger application. And it allows you to find new people with your recommendations, which extends to the content too.
Facebook has it too Pages and groups where specific topics or similar interests are discussed, as well as information about specific brands and companies. In this social network there are even Stories with publications that remain on the profile for 24 hours and “Reels”, which are short videos created by users on the platform itself.
In addition to sharing news and ads, Facebook offers other, more curious options, such as the possibility of playing video games within the “app” or the partner search application, Facebook Dating. There is also a version for companies that can set up their contact page and offer their products through the social network.
Facebook controversies
However, not everything was a success for the social network. In 2018, various American media outlets announced that the company Cambridge Analytica illegally obtained data from more than 50 million users. This data was later used in political and advertising campaigns and enabled the personalization of advertising.
The case was questioned by various institutions and political organizations such as the European Parliament, who wanted to know how Facebook uses the data submitted to the platform by users. Additionally, Facebook suffered a decline in the value of its shares more than 7%.
In this sense, the American multinational has also been involved in other types of events related to the use of user data. For example, she was fined 1.2 billion euros in May 2023 by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), due to the transfer of personal data of Facebook users from the European Union to the United States.
The social network is still one of the most used today. As recent studies show, such as the one developed by the Pew Research Center “Think Thank,” Facebook is one of the most used social networks in countries such as the United States, where 68% of surveyed users report using it.
This success is also being repeated in Spain. According to Statista, more than 20 million Spanish users use this platform every day. In fact, last year it was the second most visited website in Spain every day. second only to YouTube.
As digital metering company GfK DAM has learned, Spaniards also spend an average of $1.5 million 9 hours and 13 minutes per month to this social network.
Goalthe parent company of Facebook, is also facing accusations and lawsuits for failing to ensure certain protections against the use of its social networks by underage users on Facebook, but also on Instagram, so much so that it recently presented it in a hearing The US Senate Judiciary Committee testified on the incident of child sexual abuse on their platforms.
Likewise, as it became known in November 2023, the company is facing a lawsuit filed by several US states, which states that since 2019 the company has received more than 1.1 million reports about the existence of Accounts of users under 13 years of age (minimum usage age) on Instagram and that only a fraction of these accounts were deactivated in response.
In this spirit, in October last year, 33 US states also filed a joint lawsuit accusing the company of misleading users about the harm that its platforms cause to minors.
