During the six hours Facebook was offline last week, small-business owner J.D. Holland frantically printed 250 flyers to post around Burnsville, Mississippi, and considered buying an ad in the town’s two-page newspaper to keep business flowing at his farm store and nutrition club.
“They have my life,” Holland said of the social platform and advertising giant. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, his company has depended on Facebook Live videos and posts on his business page to drive sales for his nutrition club, he said. With no access to the site, his business was completely shut down.