While traffic surges on Facebook, with messaging up 50% from last month in many countries, their now-remote workforce struggles to handle its own IT snafus

The social network is straining to deal with skyrocketing usage as its 45,000 employees work from home for the first time.

New York Times 2020-03-25

Context & Ripple Effects

Lockdowns turned Facebook into critical infrastructure overnight: messaging is up 50% month-over-month in many countries just as its 45,000 employees go remote for the first time, and the internal IT snafus show the company running its biggest load test with its ops staff distributed. The strain was already visible on the content side days earlier, when Zuckerberg said full-time staff would cover moderation because the company can't give remote contractors mental-health support — see that moderation shift.

Facebook isn't alone: CNET's reporting found Apple, Facebook, and Google all scrambling to equip home workers, and the improvised setup is now hardening into policy — by May, Facebook will let many of its 50,000 employees work from home permanently and open remote hiring.

First-order effects

Facebook's own employees are the immediate affected group: a 50% messaging surge in many countries must be absorbed while 45,000 staff troubleshoot IT problems from home for the first time.
Moderation capacity shifts onto full-time staff, since Facebook says it cannot provide remote mental-health support to its contractor moderators during the crisis.

Second-order effects

Rivals face the same operational squeeze — Apple and Google are contending with comparable work-from-home challenges per the CNET reporting — so distributed-IT competence becomes a competitive baseline across Silicon Valley rather than a Facebook differentiator.
The strain converts an emergency workaround into strategy: Facebook moves from 'everyone home for now' to permanent remote work and aggressive remote hiring, changing its recruiting pool and cost structure.

Third-order effects

If permanent remote work holds, the unresolved questions in the follow-up coverage — who shoulders tax costs and whether salaries get cut for staff leaving high-cost cities — become standing policy fights that reshape how tech compensation works.
The moderation episode points to a structural split in content operations: work requiring support infrastructure stays with full-time employees, while contractor-based moderation gets rethought for a distributed era.

The trend: The pandemic usage surge is forcing social platforms to turn improvised all-remote operations into permanent distributed-work structures, with moderation and compensation models being rewritten in the process.

Discussion

Vox Adam Clark Estes on x
Why the internet (probably) won't break during the coronavirus pandemic
@riptari @riptari on x
Not sure Facebook use growing during a pandemic is exactly the positive indicator some are suggesting
@tanayj Tanay Jaipuria on x
Change in Facebook usage in affected countries with COVID-19: • Messaging up 50% m/m • Voice and Video Calling up 100% m/m • Weakening in ads business with less demand from businesses and increased engagement largely on non-monetized services https://about.fb.com/...
@geoffreyfowler Geoffrey A. Fowler on x
Reading this Facebook press release today, does it actually say its use in the U.S. is up? https://about.fb.com/... Last week, Verizon said social traffic across its U.S. network was flat week over week as of the 16th. https://www.verizon.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@richlightshed Rich Greenfield on x
$FB — Facebook needs to figure out how to monetize “live” “Instagram and Facebook Live views doubled in a week” “we've seen a weakening in our ads business in countries taking aggressive actions to reduce the spread of COVID-19” https://about.fb.com/...
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
The Facebook services seeing exponential growth right now (video calling, live video) aren't monetized, which puts FB in an interesting spot
@narimangharib @narimangharib on x
“In Italy, specifically: We've seen up to 70% more time spent across our apps since the crisis arrived in the country. Instagram and Facebook Live views doubled in a week. ” https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@viacristiano Cristiano Lima on x
Facebook says it's seeing “a weakening in our ads business in countries taking aggressive actions to reduce the spread of COVID-19.” https://twitter.com/...
@shiraovide Shira Ovide on x
Facebook states the obvious: More people are using its services, but it's not necessarily translating into more advertising revenue. The good news: Facebook, unlike many of the businesses that are its ad buyers, can afford to wait out a few fallow months. https://twitter.com/...
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
this blog post of theirs is, in effect, a warning that even today's enormous internet traffic periods are only a signal of whats to come as more of the world goes into quarantine Facebook's apps may even go down as it struggles to handle the surge. https://about.fb.com/...
Vox Peter Kafka on x
The pandemic is driving media consumption way up. But ad sales are falling apart.
@jbenton Joshua Benton on x
New by me, gently pushing back at the @nytimes news-on-Facebook story —> Is Facebook really a “news powerhouse” again, thanks to coronavirus? (No more than it was before) https://www.niemanlab.org/...
@tomgara Tom Gara on x
The top four news publishers on Facebook right now are The Daily Mirror, The Daily Mail, The Daily Wire and GoFundMe https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
New by me and @gabrieldance: As the coronavirus crisis deepens, news on Facebook is booming. More than half the news being consumed in the US is about the virus, according to an internal report we obtained. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@karaswisher Kara Swisher on x
Now you know it's bad if @waltmossberg is back on FB https://twitter.com/...
@niemanlab @niemanlab on x
“I wanted to point this out because publishers are always making decisions about how many resources and how much emphasis to put on various social platforms or audience development efforts.” @jbenton on @nytimes calling @Facebook a “news powerhouse” again. https://www.niemanlab.o…
@zseward Zach Seward on x
Everyone is seeing a lot more traffic (more than double for us), but Facebook is its usual cesspool. The Times story in question says the top two publishers on Facebook right now are the Daily Mirror and Daily Mail. Breitbart beats MSNBC. It's the same shit as always. https://twi…
@waltmossberg Walt Mossberg on x
As many know, I deactivated my Facebook & Instagram accounts in 2018 because of the company's policies. But, with this pandemic, I need to keep in touch with friends & family who simply aren't on Twitter. So I'm reactivating those accounts for the duration. Then I'll quit again.
@waltmossberg Walt Mossberg on x
Note: I am not temporarily returning to Facebook's properties in search of reliable Coronavirus information. And I haven't changed my mind about the company's policies and actions. I just want to stay in touch with as many friends as possible.
@ericschultz Eric Schultz on x
“Last week, a Medium post written by a tech marketer that played down the virus's seriousness was shared on Facebook more than 50,000 times, according to data from CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned data platform.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@taraemcg Tara McGowan on x
“More than half the articles being consumed on @Facebook in the US were related to the coronavirus.. Overall US traffic from Facebook to other websites also increased by more than 50% last week from the week before..owing to intense interest in the virus” https://www.nytimes.com/…
@niemanlab @niemanlab on x
The @nytimes claimed coronavirus is making Facebook a “news powerhouse” again. 🧐https://www.niemanlab.org/ ...
@andykroll Andy Kroll on x
Sure would love to know more details about what goes into Facebook's “news ecosystem quality” score... https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@pr_johnson Patrick R. Johnson on x
The fact that Facebook is seeing such a jump in news consumption related to the virus is important. Not because people are consuming it, but because of how varying the consumption is. We need a more media literate population to combat misinformation. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@zeynep Zeynep Tufekci on x
One reason I highlight media failures in my article is that I watched with great frustration in February as people asked in local Facebook groups if they should travel—to Disneyland, to conferences—and decided to go as people shared these “worry about the flu, instead” articles.
@dseetharaman Deepa Seetharaman on x
“At times, Facebook itself seemed unsure which news sources users would turn to in a crisis, with Mr. Subramanian noting that ‘fortunately’ many people were clicking on links from publishers that the company considers high-quality.” https://twitter.com/...
@herrmanndigital David Herrmann on x
This is why your CPMs on cold traffic are under $5 https://twitter.com/...
@joannastern Joanna Stern on x
More evidence of what I wrote in my column over the weekend: People are flocking (back) to Facebook right now. https://twitter.com/...
@tristanharris @tristanharris on x
Social media use soars w/ 2 billion people's insatiable appetite for coronavirus news, isolated @ home. Social media's role transitions from: 🗣 Communication tool - where we share ⬇️⬇️ 🏡 Social habitats - places we live Even more reason why tech must serve public interest. https:…

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