The undisputed former social media giant Facebook, which was recently rebranded as the “metaverse company,” is coming off arguably its worst year since its inception in 2004. The full extent of the erosion of capital that has taken place at Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) since the beginning of the year remains tragic and historic at the same time. It started the year by delivering a very problematic earnings report that highlighted multiple fundamental issues within the business model. As a result, the then-$900 billion company saw more than $200 billion in capital wiped out in a single after-hours trading session.

Since this occurred at the start of a long-overdue stock market crash, which only recently began to line up…