Some Facebook users had a good year. Some had a less good year. But nobody had quite the action-packed 2014 Facebook did. In the spirit of the ”year in review” posts clogging up Facebook news feeds from San Francisco to Shanghai, here’s what Facebook’s year looked like!
January
Researchers at Princeton University said Facebook would lose 80% of its users by 2017. Facebook countered that Princeton itself was in danger of disappearing by 2020.
Neither has disappeared yet, but Paper, a Facebook app announced with much fanfare on Jan. 30, indeed has vanished, at least from the public consciousness.
February
Most of the month looked like this:
Until the 19th of that month, when the hubbub of the usual outrage and controversy surrounding Facebook was drowned out by the sound of a billion jaws collectively hitting the floor:
March
Not one to hold back, Zuckerberg reached into his treasure chest again, this time spending a modest-seeming $2 billion on Oculus, a virtual reality company that has yet to sell any products to consumers. A couple of days later, he also bought a drone company.
April
Meh. Facebook held a conference. Strictly for geeks.
May
Zuckerberg turned 30. Cue balloon-based hilarity.
June
In May, Facebook wanted to know what music you’re listening to and if you’re dating anyone. In June, Facebook upped the ante and started asking when you had your first kiss. When did you learn to swim? What about your first flight? How much weight have you lost? As Business Insider put it, “Facebook is officially that nosy relative at Thanksgiving dinner.”
Of course, it’s not like Facebook would ever use data about its users to emotionally manipulate them, would it?
Oh.
July
Is there an accusation that hasn’t been leveled against Facebook? In July alone, it was accused of banning pro-Palestinian accounts and “borderline sexism” and of allowing hate speech.
August
Three words: Ice. Bucket. Challenge.
September
In September, Facebook rolled out is vast surveillance machine to the web at large. Apart from advertisers (and Quartz!), nobody noticed.
But drones!
October
A month for traveling.
Mark Zuckerberg went to India and met the prime minister.
Then he went to Indonesia and met the president-elect.
Then he went to Japan and met another prime minister.
Then he went to China and spoke Chinese.
November
An exciting month for Facebook fashion.
Here’s the t-shirt in question:
December
Nearly there! In December, Facebook made employees read Chinese propaganda, stood accused of “being morally unacceptable” (by the Daily Mail of all places) and was chided for participating in Russian censorship. But it was the “year in review” that really fired up passions to round off 2014.
A year to remember!