Facebook’s top executives have been silent every since news broke out regarding Cambridge Analytica’s mister of user data. Yesterday, Facebook released a statement about what Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg are up to.
“Mark, Sheryl and their teams are working around the clock to get all the facts and take the appropriate action moving forward, because they understand the seriousness of this issue,” Facebook told The Daily Beast. “The entire company is outraged we were deceived. We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people’s information and will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens.”
The statement from Facebook provides a few different answers for everyone. First, everyone’s been demanding answers from Zuckerberg himself, so this buys the company some time to come up with a proper response. Second, it escalates the emotional tone of Facebook’s response because previously, Facebook called Cambridge Analytica’s actions “unacceptable.” Finally, the statement makes Facebook look like it was not the bad actor but rather the victim in this situation.
It’s worth pointing out a report from Wired on Tuesday that the Cambridge Analytica issue has become contentious inside Facebook:
As the storm built over the weekend, Facebook’s executives, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, strategized and argued late into the night. They knew that the public was hammering them, but they also believed that the fault lay much more with Cambridge Analytica than with them. Still, there were four main questions that consumed them. How could they tighten up the system to make sure this didn’t happen again? What should they do about all the calls for Zuckerberg to testify? Should they sue Cambridge Analytica? And what could they do about psychologist Joseph Chancellor, who had helped found Kogan’s firm and who now worked, of all places, at Facebook?
Zuckerberg and other execs may be working around the click, but everyone is demanding answers. Zuckerberg is expected to address employees on Friday during the company’s regular Q&A session for employees. The meeting is expected to take place at 1PM ET.
