This week in Facebook

Do you remember when I said that Facebook's ongoing and ever-deepening scandals were going to end with someone from the firm doing jail time? That outcome just became a lot more likely.

As reported by CNN Business:

Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into Facebook's data sharing deals with a number of large technology companies, according to a new report in the New York Times.

As part of the investigation, a New York grand jury has subpoenaed two well-known smartphone makers for records related to the investigation, according to the report.

[...]

The grand jury inquiry was on behalf of the US attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York. When contacted by CNN Business, the Eastern District did not have a comment on the case.

Add this to Facebook's big outage of yesterday, and their incredibly stupid decision to block the campaign ad of Democratic Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, apparently because it talked bluntly about the need to break up companies like Facebook (way to prove her case, Zuck), and you end up with a week that a New York Times op-ed describes as "biblically bad."

Exactly when did Facebook become the Job of internet companies?

Just like the beleaguered biblical character who endured woe after woe at God’s behest, this social media giant finds itself repeatedly hit by bad news. The difference is that Job was blameless while Facebook has brought many of these disasters upon itself.

The biggest recent blow was a report on Wednesday that federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York were conducting a criminal investigation into deals Facebook had made with other companies that gave them access to data, allegedly without the consent of users.

Other calamities within the last week alone include a report from the British government accusing Facebook and other companies of hindering consumer choice and stifling innovation and calling for strong regulation; Facebook managing to look as if it was trying to block Senator Elizabeth Warren’s attempt to advertise her plan to break up big tech companies like Facebook on Facebook; its services, including the popular Instagram app, going down around the globe, and on Thursday, the announced departures of Chris Cox, Facebook’s powerful chief product officer, and Chris Daniels, the boss of WhatsApp — a giant neon sign that the company is in pain.

I think we can safely say that only Aunt Becky from “Full House” — that would be Lori Loughlin, captain of the college admissions bad parenting squad — is having a worse time this week.

Personally, I think that's something of an exaggeration; for one thing, Loughlin has already been charged and is now facing prosecution, while Facebook's looming criminal prosecution is only just entering the Grand Jury phase. Also, Facebook themselves have definitely had worse weeks. That said, their week is going shockingly poorly... and it isn't even over yet. I have a feeling that it only gets bumpier from here, for Zuck & Co.