■fb早前旗下多個手機應用程式出現問題。 資料圖片【原文】下文摘錄自香港《文匯報》2019年3月15日報道︰
社交網站facebook(fb)近年已備受洩漏用戶私隱（privacy）等醜聞（scandal）困擾，前日更遭受雙重打擊，旗下Instagram（ig）、Whatsapp及Messenger等手機應用程式（app），前日開始在美國、亞洲及歐洲多個國家出現故障（outage），無法提供服務，事發逾14小時後仍未完全恢復正常，相信是歷來最嚴重的社交媒體大規模「死機」事故。
與此同時，《紐約時報》（New York Times）披露美國檢察部門已針對fb近年洩漏客戶個人資料醜聞，展開刑事調查（criminal investigation），並要求fb部分夥伴企業交出相關記錄。
fb旗下社交平台於美東時間前日下午開始癱瘓（breakdown），持續約11小時後開始逐步恢復服務，ig昨日凌晨於twitter發文，指服務已經恢復，有網民其後留言稱，終於度過這場「2019年最嚴重社交媒體故障」。然而部分地區的fb仍然故障。
fb和ig在全球分別擁有多達23億及逾10億用戶，「死機」嚴重影響他們的社交生活（social life）。大量網民前日在twitter宣洩不滿，「#facebook當機」、「#Instagram當機」更成為網站熱門標籤。有網民稱每日都要看網上瘋傳的話題，前日因fb故障而未能收看，令她非常暴躁。
追蹤網絡故障情況的Downdetector網站指出，澳洲、亞洲、歐洲、北美洲及南美洲多個國家的fb服務均受影響。fb稱正調查故障起因，相信網站並非遭「分散式阻斷服務」（DDoS）（distributed denial-of-service）攻擊，正評估事件造成的影響，計劃向在平台刊登廣告的商戶（advertiser）退還廣告費。
在fb服務大規模死機期間，《紐時》指美國檢察部門正展開刑事調查，追查fb與科技企業訂立合作協議，向對方洩漏（disclose）客戶個人資料的做法是否違規。
消息人士透露，紐約大陪審團（grand jury）已就相關調查，向最少兩間曾與fb簽訂資料轉移協議的著名智能手機生產商發出傳票（subpoena），要求他們交出取得fb用戶個人資料的記錄，但報道未有說明涉及哪些具體案件。
fb曾與150多間企業結締夥伴協議，包括亞馬遜（Amazon.com Inc）、蘋果公司（Apple Inc）及微軟（Microsoft Corp）等，容許這些企業在用戶不知情下，閱覽用戶的好友和聯絡人資料等資訊，但fb近兩年已逐漸解除（terminate）有關協議。
fb最近已先後遭美國聯邦貿易委員會（U.S. Federal Trade Commission）及證券交易委員會（Securities and Exchange Commission）調查，司法部（U.S. Department of Justice）證券詐騙部門（Securities and Financial Fraud Unit）亦就數據分析公司「劍橋分析」（Cambridge Analytica）涉嫌利用fb客戶資料，協助總統特朗普（Donald Trump）2016年勝出大選進行調查。fb回應稱，公司一直配合政府的調查工作。
Facebook global meltdown hits 14 hours
【譯文】The online social media Facebook has been plagued by privacy scandals in recent years and it suffered another turmoil in recent days that its mobile apps such as Instagram, Whatsapp and Messenger had experienced global meltdown and its users in America, Asia and Europe were worst hit by the technical difficulties. The normal service was partly restored only after 14 hours of problems and this was believed to be the most severe outage in its history. Meanwhile, the New York Times disclosed that the U.S. federal prosecutors have been conducting a criminal investigation into the company's massive data breach and requested a submission of relevant records by the technology companies involved.
The social media breakdown came in the afternoon （EST） on 13 March and started to resume service gradually after about 11 hours of outage. Instagram posted a message on Twitter one day later saying that the service had been restored and some netizens commented that they finally survived the "great social media outage of 2019", but the platform in certain regions was still out of function.
Facebook and Instagram now have more than 2.3 billion and 1 billion users around the globe respectively, and their social life was significantly affected due to the outage. The users then flocked to Twitter to express their outrage with the "#Facebookdown" and "#Instagramdown" hashtags and some were even annoyed at being unable to view the hot topics on Facebook as usual.
The website Downdetector, which provides real-time overview of network issues, said Facebook services in Australia, Asia, Europe, North and South America were greatly impacted. The company had been checking the cause of the failure and denied it was targeted by a distributed denial-of-service （DDoS） attack. It was still accessing the overall impact and planned to include the possibility of refunds for advertisers.
At the same time, the New York Times revealed that the U.S. prosecutors have been launching a criminal investigation into the data sharing deal made between Facebook and the relevant technology companies to examine whether it was a breach of law to disclose users' personal information to other parties.
It was reported that a grand jury in New York had subpoenaed records from at least two prominent makers of smartphones who had reached data deals with Facebook, but it was unknown that what specific cases were involved.
Facebook has entered into partnerships with more than 150 companies, including Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp, for access to its users' friends and contact information without permission, but it has terminated those agreements in the past two years gradually.
The company has already been facing the ongoing investigations by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Securities and Financial Fraud Unit of the U.S. Department of Justice is also looking at the issue that Facebook shared the user data with the consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, helping to bring about Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election. Facebook said it was cooperating with investigators in multiple federal probes.■龐嘉儀
Q&A
1. facebook於哪年成立？
2. facebook的創始人是誰？
3. facebook的最初註冊僅限於哪間大學的學生？
4. facebook目前使用的語言多達幾多種？
5. facebook的月活躍用戶數目達到多少？
Answer
1.2004年
2. Mark Zuckerberg
3. 哈佛大學（Harvard University）
4. 140種
5. 逾20億