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For Zuck, when is enough, enough?

Keith Preston
Nicholas Carlson October 19, 2022

 
Hello, Insiders. It’s starting to look like American voters choosing between a Republican-controlled Congress and a Democratic one are facing another choice: Do they want the US to continue sending as much aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia? At one point, support for Ukraine was bipartisan. But recent data and a comment from GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (who told Punchbowl that, if there’s a recession, he thinks people are not going to “write a blank check to Ukraine”) suggest that era is ending. What do you think? Let me know at newsletter@insider.com. And with that, let’s get started.
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The big story
Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg’s foray into the metaverse has hit severe roadblocks — and Meta’s already burned $15 billion on his passion project. So it’s time for Zuckerberg to pause, reflect, and ask himself one important question: When is enough, enough?

 

Meta’s metaverse experiment isn’t off to a promising start, and there have been plenty of warning signs the past few weeks. Per the Wall Street Journal, most users abandon the platform after the first month. And according to the Verge, it’s so chaotic that even the team working on the flagship metaverse app is hardly using it.

 

Plus, economic uncertainty has already forced Zuckerberg to freeze hiring and take other actions that have rattled employees. Even buzzy announcements like Zuckerberg’s new virtual legs turned out to be marketing fluff, not an actual feature.

 

So how many more warning signs does he need to see?

 

Read our full analysis here.

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Today’s sound bite
“Passengers discovered the snake as the plane was pulling into Newark Airport, and screams erupted throughout the cabin.”  
No, this is not a retelling of the film Snakes on a Plane. Find out what happened by listening to The Refresh from Insider.
Watch this
Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, was under attack this week by Russian drones — and multiple residential buildings were damaged and destroyed. Watch a drone strike during rush hour here.
Today’s team
Nicholas Carlson (@nichcarlson), Lisa Ryan (@lisarya), and Jordan Parker Erb (@jordanparkererb).
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