CHAPTER 435: CHAPTER 434: PUBLIC OPINION PRESSURE

The discussion was slowly fermenting, gradually becoming unfavorable for Mark Zuckerberg.

Although Mark Zuckerberg himself did not encounter any issues, he soon found himself in trouble.

Even though the investigation cleared Mark’s name, revealing he was not involved, and they weren’t planning to pursue him, only the finance officer was targeted.

But the American public is not foolish; they can easily see through such blatant issues.

Any discerning person would know that the financial officer was merely taking the fall; they would never believe that Mark Zuckerberg, the company president, wasn’t involved at all.

Though Mark Zuckerberg escaped imprisonment, the pressure from public opinion was immense.

Many media outlets published comments, harshly criticizing Mark Zuckerberg’s tax evasion.

The American public frequently discussed the matter, with widespread opinion strongly disliking Mark Zuckerberg, as everyone knew he was the real culprit.

Not only did Mark Zuckerberg personally endure immense public pressure, but his company also suffered a significant impact during this time.

Facebook’s user numbers began to decline continuously; many people abandoned using Mark Zuckerberg’s company products.

A company known for tax evasion leaves a poor impression on the public, which naturally affects its products.

After all, while Facebook, the social media platform, is popular, it is not indispensable.

People can choose other social media software instead; it’s not as if they can’t live without Facebook.

Under such circumstances, Facebook’s user numbers continued to plummet, while other social media platforms saw their user bases increase.

Mark Zuckerberg, of course, wasn’t going to just sit by; he had anticipated the current public opinion.

Soon, an army of internet troll accounts appeared across various forums, beginning to shield Facebook.

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg personally appeared to apologize, hoping to gain public forgiveness.

After apologizing, Mark Zuckerberg promptly paid the fines, indicating his willingness to admit his mistakes.

The billion-dollar fines caused him considerable distress, but there weren’t any other options left.

After taking care of this, Mark Zuckerberg also donated vast sums of money, actively participating in charitable efforts, each donation not minor in amount.

The trend of public opinion finally started to shift after Mark Zuckerberg’s hefty expenditures, and Facebook’s situation gradually began to stabilize.

In total, Mark Zuckerberg paid over twenty billion US dollars for this incident, including the fines.

Although Mark Zuckerberg was very wealthy, such massive losses did affect him severely.

However, fortunately, things started turning around; if Mark Zuckerberg could get through this, rising again would not be a difficult task.

Unfortunately, Jiang Cheng wasn’t going to let Mark Zuckerberg slowly recover.

Lucy, commence the second step of the plan and release those fatal bugs in Facebook. Don’t give them a chance to breathe," Jiang Cheng ordered coldly.

The data Lucy obtained last time included some critical vulnerabilities in Facebook. If exploited, these vulnerabilities could cause significant losses for Facebook users.

These bugs weren’t easy to fix; otherwise, Facebook Company would have done so by now.

They hadn’t resolved these issues simply because there was no way to.

Soon, a rumor circulated in the market, saying that Facebook’s software had significant vulnerabilities and that anyone using it could easily be infected by a trojan.

Initially, nobody believed the rumor since nothing had happened despite using it for so long.

However, soon they had no choice but to believe it, as many users were indeed infected by trojans, suffering substantial losses.

Gradually, the news spread widely, and many people became aware of Facebook’s issue.

Many users immediately stopped using this social media platform, as, in comparison to their computer’s security, social media seemed less important.

Facebook’s user numbers began to decline once more, quickly reaching a perilously low level, and the company’s stock price continued to plummet as well.

Mark Zuckerberg started to become even more distressed, urging his programmers daily to solve the current bug issues.

What are you people doing? It’s been so long, and you still haven’t found a solution! I’m not paying you to sit here and eat for nothing. If you can’t find a solution soon, you’ll all be packing up and leaving!

Mark Zuckerberg was constantly frustrated by his employees, with similar sentiments frequently heard within the company.

Unfortunately, this bug wasn’t easy to resolve; even though Facebook’s programmers worked tirelessly overtime, they couldn’t find a solution.

While Mark Zuckerberg had yet to resolve the current issue, Jiang Cheng made another move.

This time, Jiang Cheng aimed to deliver a fatal blow, planning to take advantage of their current chaos to finish his opponent once and for all.

Jiang Cheng’s plan this time was very simple, leveraging the data obtained last time.

This data mostly contained Americans’ private information. If he leaked a portion of these materials,

Facebook, already plagued by internal and external problems, would be utterly doomed, with no chance to recover.

There wouldn’t even need to be much leakage; leaking just a portion would suffice. After all, once such privacy is exposed, Facebook Company wouldn’t be able to explain it even if it had a hundred mouths.

Besides their company, no one else could access these private details, meaning it could only have been leaked internally.

A social media platform that leaks user privacy likely wouldn’t have any more willing users.

Jiang Cheng quickly instructed Lucy to take action, directing the artificial intelligence to quietly distribute some of that user data online.

He primarily wanted to avoid exposing himself, as engaging in such activities could severely damage his reputation.

If it were discovered that Jiang Cheng was the one leaking others’ privacy, it would be a significant blow to his prestige.

Currently, Jiang Cheng needed to maintain his impeccable reputation, which would make any of his ventures far easier and reduce many obstacles for his future plans.

After completing the final step, Jiang Cheng simply waited patiently. As soon as this matter was exposed, he would reap the fruits of victory.

Jiang Cheng believed that with his lethal move, Mark Zuckerberg stood no chance; all he had to do was wait for his downfall.

Later in Facebook’s headquarters, Mark Zuckerberg was still busy dealing with the company’s software issues.

This period had been truly difficult for him, from the tax evasion revelations to the subsequent software bug issues.

One issue after another had consumed so much of his energy, leaving him with no strength to deal with external matters.