Facebook had a lot of announcements to make at its developer conference Tuesday, but in true Facebook-2018 form, there was a big problem with the live stream: It wasn’t live.In his keynote kicking off the annual F8 event in San Jose, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stepped up to introduce a slate of new Facebook features — but at the opening of his remarks, the feed crashed and it continued to lag throughout the event.It was offline for over 30 minutes, according to The Verge, and Zuck started his speech while it was down. Later, 5,000 viewers — half of the 10,000 who were watching at the time — were kicked out of the stream while the company introduced its new virtual reality platform. Users voiced their dissatisfaction in the comments.“This reminds me of the one Apple keynote when Steve Jobs was like: ‘Maybe this Safari demo would be working if you all got off the Wi-Fi!’” wrote one user.“Here at Dominican Republic this thing Probably ended yesterday and we are seeing it Today!! So Slow… even a Turtle can go Faster!! 🤣😂😂😂” wrote another.Luckily, news outlets were there to stream the event and the announcements got through despite Facebook’s own broadcast struggles. Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which user data for up 87 million users was harvested and put to use to target Trump campaign ads, and Zuckerberg’s testimony on Capitol Hill, Facebook announced Tuesday morning that it would add a new privacy tool allowing users to clear their history.But on Tuesday afternoon, the announcements were more lighthearted. The company announced a few more fun projects they’ve been working on, including Facebook dating — a swipe at Match Group, which owns Tinder and OkCupid. It’ll be an add-on to the regular Facebook app, allowing users to start conversations using only their first names.The company’s also releasing a new virtual reality headset, and a bunch of games and social features along with it.F8 continues Wednesday with sessions for developers and another big keynote address. Maybe they'll figure out the live stream by then.Cover treatment by Leslie Xia
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