Neil Howe: Is This Facebook's 'Chipotle Moment?' HD

Is the Facebook brand in crisis? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify before Congress on April 11 to answer questions about the huge breach of data that was mined from users by the likes of Cambridge Analytica and others data mining companies like it. Sure, every company suffers setbacks, but few have experienced a crisis quite like Facebook. Well, maybe Chipotle. Hedgeye Demography sector head Neil Howe (who has been bearish on tech giants like Facebook and Google for months) recently discussed whether the data-scraping scandal currently dogging Facebook is the social media giant’s “Chipotle moment.” “A ‘Chipotle moment’ is interesting because it’s a moment in which everyone begins to see the brand in a different way,” Howe says in the clip above. In 2015, a foodborne illness outbreak threatened to bring the burrito chain to its knees. (Hedgeye Restaurants analyst Howard Penney was the long-time bear on Chipotle until the company announced its CEO and founder Steve Ells was stepping down. Penney is now bullish on the prospects of a Chipotle turnaround.) “This is the danger: people now see Facebook and a lot of social media sites as not bridging trust, but solely making bonding more exclusive and pulling us down rabbit holes.” Watch the clip above for more.