2017 was bad for Facebook; it will get worse: opinion

Illuminated signage is displayed at the Facebook Inc. Hack Station in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Monday, Dec. 11, 2017. The Facebook Hack Station is the first of the company's innovation centers in the world offering coding classes, entrepreneurship workshops, career guidance, and workspace for startups of social impact. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube are poised to play outsized roles in the first presidential race since new rules put an end to corporate campaign donations, forcing possible candidates to seek cheaper and more effective ways of reaching voters. Photographer: Patricia Monteiro/Bloomberg

Facebook is projected to boost sales by 46% and double net income, but make no mistake: It had a terrible year. Despite its financial performance, the social media giant is facing a reckoning in 2018 as regulators close in on several fronts. 

The main issue cuts to the core of the company itself: Rather than “building global community,” as founder Mark Zuckerberg sees Facebook's mission, it is “ripping apart the social fabric.” Those are the words of Chamath Palihapitiya, the company's former vice-president of user growth. He doesn't allow his kids to use Facebook because he doesn't want them to become slaves to “short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops.”