Chapter 256: They were beaten so badly they questioned their existence!

“But…the opponent is really tough to deal with.” A Facebook executive sighed, his voice filled with helplessness.
“Who could have imagined that TSMC, which was once so overwhelming, would collapse so suddenly?
What’s worse, the White House leadership…their attitude towards Fang Huan is almost abnormally friendly.”
A new broom sweeps clean.
The new president is currently at the height of his power and energy.
A madman wielding immense power is now openly giving Fang Huan the green light for investment. How the hell is this supposed to be?
"I heard that Fang Huan was involved in the recent 'volatility apocalypse' on Wall Street. Is that true?"
"Absolutely. Our investigation revealed that Fang Huan Investment, using Goldman Sachs as a front, made a fortune in the market and then made a clean getaway.
The SEC had just gotten a lead when they saw the name 'White House' appear, and immediately backed down and shelved the case."
"Not only that! The latest rumor is that Fang Huan was also the mastermind behind this Tesla privatization farce!"
Mark Berg, of course, knew about the Tesla saga; after all, social media was practically flooded with posts about that madman those days.
"How did this get involved with Fang Huan again?"
"Our informant said that Mark Slim had a secret meeting with Su Hao, the guy Fang Huan invested in.
Then, Su Hao started massively building up his long position, reportedly buying shares worth billions of dollars!"
"Wait!" Mark Berg slammed his hand on the table.
"You mean, Mark Slim was acting on Su Hao's orders?"
What's the essence of social media?
It's "stirring things up," "attracting attention," and "causing trouble."
And Musk is undoubtedly the "King of Stirring Things Up," the "God of Causing Trouble."
Unfortunately, this god seems too intoxicated by his ability to "stir things up," and he accidentally blew the sky open:
He actually tweeted, claiming he would buy all the shares at a premium and take the company private.
This is pure nonsense, blatant fraud.
"This is clearly stock price manipulation, the evidence is irrefutable!
But the SEC says their investigation shows Su Hao and Musk only discussed the Close AI equity transaction that day, and had no other interaction.
In other words: they didn't catch them exchanging money for goods."
"Are you kidding me! Anyone with a brain knows there's something fishy about this, and they're just going to let it go like that?"
"The SEC is in a difficult position too. In a typical stock price manipulation case, there should be some trace of illicit transfer of benefits, right?
But their relationship is as clean as a freshly washed dish.
Besides, if they dig deeper into Fang Huan's case, they might accidentally uncover the powerful figure behind the scenes, and that would be a huge mess. Who can bear that responsibility?"
This is utterly ridiculous.
In all the years since the founding of the United States, when has it ever been the turn of a yellow-skinned, black-haired Chinese person to extend their reach into the heart of their own financial and political spheres and manipulate things like this?
The most terrifying thing is that no one knows exactly how far that guy named Su Hao has infiltrated the organization.
“But we can’t just sit here and wait!” Mark Berg’s voice hardened again.
“Find a way! Contact our connections on Capitol Hill, put pressure on them!
We must do everything in our power to stop 'picpic's' expansion!
Our only, and last, advantage now is—”
He looked around at everyone and said, enunciating each word clearly:
“We are an American company!”
The new president shouts “Make America Great Again” all the time.
Although his relationship with Facebook wasn’t exactly great, it was still a domestic company.
If they wanted to be “great,” they couldn’t just watch their leading company be strangled by a foreign player, could they?
***
Fanghuan Investment, Top Transaction Department.
“Musk was fined $20 million, Tesla was fined $20 million, and Musk himself was ousted from his position as chairman.”
In the conference room, subordinates were reporting.
Because of Musk's outrageous actions, Fanghuan Investment, as a "related party," naturally couldn't escape the SEC's investigation.
However, Su Hao wasn't too worried.
The SEC's investigation yielded no substantial connection between him and Musk. While the case was temporarily closed, it remained in the "supplementary investigation" phase.
Su Hao himself had to admit that this move was purely lucky.
He had no idea that Musk, that madman, would go to such lengths; he simply placed his bet based on his intuition.
Of course, if he said that, nobody would believe it.
Fortunately, the SEC didn't seem to intend to pursue the matter to the end.
Judging from their swift conviction and fine of Musk, their investigation on their side was essentially over.
"Chairman Su, the real problem now is with 'PicPic'." His subordinate's voice pulled Su Hao back to reality.
"As expected, Facebook's counterattack is incredibly fierce.
They seem to be trying to use their massive user base to crush us!"
PicPic's rise was too rapid and aggressive.
This sent a chill down Facebook's spine, which had been firmly established as the social media leader.
From a certain day on, they began openly spreading rumors across the internet, smearing PicPic as "foreign software that steals valuable information from the American people."
"That's obviously nonsense, but... some people actually believe it."
"Has user growth been affected?" Su Hao asked calmly.
"There haven't been any significant fluctuations yet, and the growth momentum remains strong.
However, if Facebook continues to smear us like this, the long run will inevitably have an impact.
Moreover, their Instagram is aggressively poaching our top influencers active on PicPic, attempting to fundamentally weaken our content ecosystem."
Facebook has gone all out this time, offering a $20 million prize pool.
They publicly announced that any influencer active on PicPic who is willing to switch to Instagram and consistently create content there will be selected to win a $10 million cash prize!
“Because of this, a group of people have indeed stopped updating and gone to Facebook.
If they continue this simple and crude money-burning marketing approach, our future losses could be significant.”
“Chairman Su, then… should we also launch a similar campaign to go head-to-head with them?” an employee suggested.
That was a good idea.
But Su Hao felt that simply launching a campaign of the same scale as theirs would be too small a move.
If we're going to fight, we should fight them hard, make them submit, and leave them questioning their very existence!