'This time is different' — Cramer says Facebook might not be able to shake off latest fallout

Published Mon, Oct 4 202111:33 AM EDTUpdated Mon, Oct 4 20214:30 PM EDT

CNBC's Jim Cramer said Monday the Facebook whistleblower documents are so damaging that the stock might not be able to shake them off like it has past criticism of the social network's business practices. "This time is different," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street," saying the documents — which showed that Facebook executives had been aware of negative effects of its platforms on some young users — coupled with Apple 's new opt-in privacy practices, may be too much for Facebook shares to weather. Facebook also owns photo-sharing giant Instagram. Cramer said these documents are "pretty devastating" and could lead to Facebook advertisers jumping ship, adding that viable alternatives for big companies' ads could be Snap , YouTube and TikTok. YouTube is owned by Alphabet 's Google. TikTok is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance. The "Mad Money" host also said "heads have to roll" at Facebook but probably not co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg . Cramer said that over the years he had been a staunch defender of Zuckerberg, giving him the benefit of the doubt because of the tough position he's in to wrangle content posted by billions of users. But he said Monday, after the airing of an interview with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen on Sunday on "60 Minutes" and the recent Wall Street Journal series of reports, that the social network needs to make major changes, which might have adverse effects on its business. "I can't in good conscience own it," Cramer said earlier on "Squawk Box." Cramer later wrote to members of his CNBC Investing Club that he's "leaning towards exiting" his charitable trust's stake in Facebook. ( Sign up for the "CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer" newsletter to find out the factors he thinks investors should be considering when it comes to Facebook and watch "Mad Money" on Monday evening at 6 p.m. ET. ) One of the Journal stories , published on Sept. 14, described an internal company slide deck from 2019, stating that Instagram worsened body issues for one in three teenage girls. At a Senate panel hearing about two weeks later, Facebook global head of safety Antigone Davis tried to contextualize and reframe the research. She said the research was "not a bombshell." Lawmakers vehemently disagreed. Shares of Facebook have dropped more than 12% from Sept. 13 — the day of the first article in the Journal's investigative series it called "the facebook files" — to Monday's early morning low of the session. The stock closed down nearly 5% Monday at $326.23 per share. However, the stock was still up over 19% in 2021. Facebook shares hit an all-time high on $384.33 on Sept. 1. Cramer also cited another recent blow to Facebook: Apple's operating system update, which requires iPhone and iPad users to allow tracking when first launching an app. In fact, Facebook told advertisers in a blog post last month that it underreported ad performance on iPhones, citing the privacy changes Apple made to iOS. Facebook's CFO warned of the potential effect of the iOS changes on the company's July earnings call. Disclosure: Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of Facebook.

Jim Cramer on CNBC's Halftime Report.

Scott Mlyn | CNBC