Facebook has received its fair share of bad press. That comes with the territory when you are one of the most powerful platforms in the world for information distribution and a huge business with billions of dollars. I can't help but wonder if the last two days are going to end up being something of a "last straw" for some users, both personal and business.

On Sunday night, 60 Minutes presented a story centered on a whistleblower named Frances Haugen. She intends to testify before Congress that Facebook, which also operates Instagram and WhatsApp, has proven over and over again that it has complete disregard for its users' safety and its effect on the public conscious. Therefore, Haugen believes that Facebook should be subject to strict federal regulations.

According to Statista's research department, Facebook boasts 2.89 billion users across the globe. Access to an audience like that would certainly be hard to give up, especially considering that more than 57% of Facebook users are in the 25-54 demo and around 56% of them are men.

It is so easy to justify not making any kind of change, but between Sunday's PR disaster and Monday's crash, it is time to take a look at whether or not the platform is working for us. Remember, just 35% of your followers see any content you post there if you aren't paying for the message to be boosted. Is a tool that only works 35% of the time a tool worth keeping?

The accusations that Haugen leveled at Facebook are eye-opening. Political parties have told the company that they do not like the algorithm that prioritizes the most absurd stories. Facebook doesn't respond. An internal study suggested that Instagram leads to depression and suicidal thoughts in teen girls. Facebook decided to build a version of the app targeted specifically at kids because that same study said that the more depressed Instagram made them feel, the more they looked at it. Facebook is sighted over and over again as the most common tool used to spread disinformation about elections and Covid-19. Facebook started a Civic Integrity Unit that it immediately disbanded once the 2020 election was over.

None of these things directly affect sports radio brands or the way they are viewed, but it sure seems like a reckoning is coming for Facebook. Is it a platform still worth prioritizing?

There are so many ways for us to send out snackable-sized content these days. If you are only keeping Facebook because of its sheer volume of users, I would argue that isn't exactly critical thinking. As a company, it prioritizes a passive user experience. Think about Facebook and Instagram. They are built for mindlessly scrolling and tapping.

Admittedly, scrolling and tapping play equally large roles in Twitter and Tik Tok, but users go to those apps expecting entertainment from creators. They are usually more engaged audiences. Combine those apps with the reach of something like YouTube and the capabilities of a platform like Twitch, and you have much better platforms for engaging your audience online. If a sponsor wants a presence on your social media platforms, doesn't it make sense to steer them to the ones where your users are more active?

All trends are cyclical, no matter the realm they exist in. It wasn't that long ago that we talked about MySpace as the social media power. In any normal circumstance, Facebook would have just faded into the background like so many social media sites before it.

This is a completely different beast though. This site amassed considerable power and seemingly abused it at every turn. It has become a pariah so often that at one point, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had a feed created on Facebook that just posted positive news about Facebook.

As I write this, your Facebook content is gone. It's not just inaccessible. It is gone as the result of a hacker attack.

(Editor's Note: Facebook service was restored after this column was submitted)

Like the monster in any good movie, Facebook will come back. I just wonder if after two days of one PR nightmare after another if there is any reason for us to come back to Facebook.