Experts confirmed that Earth's rotation is now becoming faster. Recently, Scientists at the National Physical Laboratory in England were able to record the shortest day they experienced.
They confirmed this on June 29. However, it was followed by another short day period on July 26. The June 29 day is 1.59 milliseconds shorter than the usual 24-hour day.
On the other hand, July 29 was 1.50 milliseconds shorter. Of course, many scientists were concerned since there could be serious environmental changes leading to this rotation change.
Aside from them, tech companies are also becoming worried because leap seconds can affect their online platforms.
Meta Says Leap Second Must Be Ended
According to Ars Technica's latest report, Meta decided to join other tech manufacturers asking for leap seconds to be removed.
For the past few years, leap seconds were already implemented 27 times. Meta claimed that this is quite enough.
"At Meta, we're supporting an industry effort to stop future introductions of leap seconds and stay at a current level of 27," said the giant tech firm via its official blog post.
The company added that it is risky to introduce more leap seconds since do more harm than good, suggesting that new techs should replace them.
Why Leap Seconds are Bad for Online Platforms
The recent leap seconds imposed already affected various online platforms. Back in 2012, many websites shut down because of the sudden global time change.
These include Gawker, Reddit, as well as the Australian Airline Qantas. On the other hand, Cloudfare also experienced outages during the leap second in 2017.
Because of this, many online platforms developed technologies that will allow them to automatically adjust their time if there are sudden leap seconds.
But, these solutions are only effective on the positive leap seconds (longer time changes).
Meta's engineers explained that negative leap seconds (shorter time period than usual) can have a drastically negative effect on Facebook and other online platforms.
You can visit this link to see further details about leap seconds.
Recently, Meta asked Facebook's Oversight Board if the COVID-19 misinformation policies should be removed or adjusted.
On the other hand, Facebook's TikTok-like features were recently introduced.
For more news updates about Meta and its online platforms, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
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Written by: Griffin Davis
