Interviews with more than 50 people show how Facebook stumbled in dealing with multiple crises, which Zuckerberg and Sandberg initially tried to obscure
and that it might be toxic Lauren Johnson / Business Insider : Quartz's new app is banking on big names like Richard Branson to help create a 'constructive … Recode : Recode Daily: Facebook battles renewed criticism from Washington, D.C. CBS News : Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg: “We absolutely did not pay anyone to create fake news” Saheli Roy Choudhury / CNBC : Facebook's Sandberg denies report that she ignored Russian activity on site and thwarted investigations Matthew Field / Telegraph : Facebook to set up ‘Supreme Court’ within a year to oversee appeals about content decisions Jon Russell / TechCrunch : Sheryl Sandberg claims she didn't know Facebook hired agency behind ‘abhorrent’ anti-Soros campaign Rex Crum / Mercury News : Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg: ‘I did not know’ about discrediting efforts Longreads : The Top 5 Longreads of the Week Alex Shephard / New Republic : Facebook Betrayed America John Hendel / Politico : Facebook fallout continues Maya Kosoff / Vanity Fair : Mark Zuckerberg Refuses Responsibility for Facebook's Latest, Greatest Scandal Joel Hruska / ExtremeTech : No One Wants to Talk About How Completely We Were Lied to CBS San Francisco : Schumer Deflects Claims That He Pushed Colleagues To Go Easy On Facebook Colin Lecher / The Verge : Facebook critics file FTC complaint over breach of 30 million accounts New York Times : How to Find Out What Facebook Knew Ivan Mehta / The Next Web : Facebook removed 1.5 billion fake accounts between April and September Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider : Qualcomm might be using political campaign-style attack tactics against Apple Nathan Ingraham / Engadget : Facebook removed over 1.5 billion fake accounts in the last six months Nizan Geslevich Packin / Forbes : Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, But That May Be Where Big Tech Is Heading Andy Meek / BGR : Facebook might use your photos to target your entire family with ads Sean Keane / CNET : Senator to probe Facebook's use of opposition research firm John Kennedy / Silicon Republic : Can someone please take charge at Facebook? Sara Fischer / Axios : Facebook leaders' strategy on consultants: “We didn't know” Chris Castle / Music Technology Policy : Wendy! Wendy! Peter's Off His Meds Again! CEO Madness Sets in At Facebook Karl Bode / Techdirt : Facebook's Use Of Smear Merchants Is The Norm, Not The Exception Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch : Facebook's weapon amid chaos and controversy: misdirection Evan Osnos / New Yorker : Facebook and the Age of Manipulation Nikhil Sonnad / Quartz : Do we have a moral obligation to quit Facebook? Igor Derysh / Heavy.com : David Magerman: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know Mike Murphy / MarketWatch : Ex-hedge fund exec Magerman funded anti-Facebook campaign: report Jessica Powell / The Guardian : Facebook told us it wasn't a typical big, bad company. It is Theodore Schleifer / Recode : Washington pummels Facebook: ‘Big tech can no longer be trusted’ Celine Ryan / The Daily Caller : Tech Giant Feud Continues: Zuckerberg Tells Employees To Use Android, Not Apple Tasneem Nashrulla / BuzzFeed News : A Top George Soros Aide Called For An Independent Investigation Of Facebook's Lobbying And PR Deadline : Facebook Enters Damage Control, Fires D.C. “Oppo” Firm And Holds A Whopper Of A Press Call John Johnson / Newser : Zuckerberg: I Had No Idea About Anti-Soros Strategy Dalvin Brown / USA Today : Facebook vs. Apple feud: Social networking site calls out Tim Cook by name Thomas Claburn / The Register : Facebook's CEO on his latest almighty Zuck-up: OK, we did try to smear critics, but I was too out-of-the-loop to know Emily Stewart / Vox : Facebook won't fix itself Cal Jeffrey / TechSpot : Zuckerberg vs. Cook: CEOs continue their subtle feud over business philosophies Kelsey Sutton / Adweek : Mark Zuckerberg Denies Knowing About Facebook's Work With Oppo Research Group Jonathan Vanian / Fortune : Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: I Didn't Know About Our Controversial Lobbying, Opposition Research Tactics Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic : When the Tech Mythology Collapses David McCabe / Axios : Facebook fires Republican consulting firm that invoked Soros ResearchBuzz : Facebook and the Final Straw Jack Morse / Mashable : Facebook's board says Zuckerberg was too slow to spot Russian interference Bryan Menegus / Gizmodo : Mark Zuckerberg: 'I Didn't Know' — Today, Facebook set … Oliver Haslam / Redmond Pie : Facebook Execs Reportedly Forced To Switch From iPhone To Android By Zuckerberg After Tim Cook's Privacy Comments Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC : Facebook says it's creating an independent body to help it decide which content to remove Tweets: Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : The entire discussion around Facebook's disclosures of what happened in 2016 is very frustrating. No exec stopped any investigations, but there were a lot of heated discussions about what to publish and when. http://twitter.com/... Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : Facebook encountered an unprecedented situation in 2016-2017. As I have said before, I was never told by Mark, Sheryl or any other executives not to investigate. http://twitter.com/... Sheera Frenkel / @sheeraf : This story has been 6 months in the making. It started with a question: What happened inside Facebook over the last 3 years, and what did top executives, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, do in the wake of crisis after crisis battering the company? http://www.nytimes.com/... David Cicilline / @davidcicilline : This staggering report makes clear that @Facebook executives will always put their massive profits ahead of the interests of their customers. Jessica Guynn / @jguynn : Mark Zuckerberg is vaguely denying allegations in the story and moves quickly to stressing solutions so people will stop talking about the problems. This is the Facebook playbook. Is the company misreading the room this time? Anand Giridharadas / @anandwrites : Text me when he and Sheryl resign bye http://twitter.com/... @dhh : What's the opposite of credible deniability? Whatever it is, Zuckerberg has it. What a joke. #DeleteFacebook http://www.wired.com/... http://twitter.com/... David Carroll / @profcarroll : Rules his company as an unaccountable autocrat. Claims not to be aware of his empire's sleaziness (That's Kaplan's job). Marketers realize the company is two-faced (Zuck's actual customers). Lawmakers realize they've been deceived (Zuck's sees himself above the law). http://twitter.com/... Sheera Frenkel / @sheeraf : Note our story did not say any executive stopped the security team from investigating, it says the initial investigation was done without their knowledge and that afterwards they tried to obfuscate the details. http://twitter.com/... Elizabeth Spiers / @espiers : The posturing here is pretty remarkable considering that this type of nihilistic break-things-and-worry-about-the- damage-later firm is normal in Silicon Valley, and not the type of thing many people who work in politics want to be associated with. https://twitter.com/... Jessica Guynn / @jguynn : So, who did know on your team about Definers?Zuckerberg: “I think someone on our comms team must have hired them."Comms team, meet the bus that just ran you over. Seth Fiegerman / @sfiegerman : Zuckerberg balks at suggestion he step down as chairman of Facebook's board. “I don't particularly think that that specific proposal is the right way to go.” Ian Sherr / @iansherr : Zuck jumps in after next question: He's taken FB down before, apparently. In 2010, an engineer shippped something that was a priavcy risk so took the whole service down. (But, not for election interference and inciting violence and death) Sam Biddle / @samfbiddle : Zuckerberg just keeps saying “I learned about this yesterday” over and over Jessica Guynn / @jguynn : Mark Zuckerberg: We have considered taking the service down when we were worried about a privacy or security issue. But he does not address Myanmar. Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : Do I wish the final compromise was more aggressive with public attribution? Yes. I also find the public outrage here to be a bit contrived. First off, the responsible parties had all of the data, and the paper very strongly pointed to Russia via the DNI release. Ryan Mac / @rmac18 : Zuckerberg: “I have tremendous respect for George Soros.” Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : In the end, the difficult question of attribution was settled by us pointing to the DNI report instead of saying Russia or GRU directly. In my pre-briefs with members of Congress, I made it clear that we believed this action was GRU. Ryan Mac / @rmac18 : Zuckerberg said he learned that Facebook was working with Definers from the NYT story. Uhhh Brian Feldman / @bafeldman : zuck says he learned about the Definers stuff yesterday. finger on the pulse of his own direct reports Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers : ZUCKERBERG, asked if anyone is going to lose their job because of this: “In terms of personnel management, I generally just don't talk about that in public ...” Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : In the spring and summer of 2016, as reported by the Times, activity we traced to GRU was reported to the FBI. This was the standard model of interaction companies used for nation-state attacks against likely US targeted. Alex Stamos / @alexstamos : This report when through dozens of edits as different equities were represented. I did not have any meetings with Sheryl on the paper, but I can't speak to whether she was in the loop with my higher-ups. Jessica Guynn / @jguynn : Facebook board statement on Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg: “To suggest that they knew about Russian interference and either tried to ignore it or prevent investigations into what had happened is grossly unfair.” Alex Heath / @alexeheath : Zuckerberg moments ago: The idea that Facebook was trying to hide the truth about Russian meddling on the platform is “simply untrue” http://www.nytimes.com/... Jessica Guynn / @jguynn : This announcement that Facebook executives are discussing was planned for a long time. But the timing, coming a day after the NYT bombshell, is not coincidental. Bryan Menegus / @bryandisagrees : Mark is definitely saying a lot of words that don't mean a whole lot or address the core problem with how his company is being run Matt Stoller / @matthewstoller : I'm so mad about Sheryl Sandberg's conspiratorial attacks against us. Facebook has an infinite amount of lobbying money. We're a tiny policy shop with a budget smaller than FB's one for artisanal salts in their in-house cafe. And we study the entire political economy not just FB. Casey Johnston / @caseyjohnston : wow the fake news student becomes the fake news master https://www.nytimes.com/... pic.twitter.com/ZgHOAyMRyS Nick Confessore / @nickconfessore : EXCLUSIVE: Inside Facebook's two-year campaign to delay, deny, and deflect the crisis consuming it. https://www.nytimes.com/... w/@sheeraf @ceciliakang @AllMattNYT & @jacknicas Jon Schwarz / @schwarz : I'm glad David N. Cicilline, the incoming chair of the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, is concerned about Facebook. But Facebook's customers are not its users, but its advertisers. Facebook's users are its product. http://twitter.com/... Kenneth P. Vogel / @kenvogel : SEN. SCHUMER (D-@FACEBOOK): When Senate Intel was probing Facebook's relationship with CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA, @ChuckSchumer told @MarkWarner to back off. * Schumer was the biggest recipient of Facebook employee $ in 2016, & his daughter works for the company http://www.nytimes.com/... Renee DiResta / @noupside : As someone who was on the other side of this when FB was tossing out “only $100k in ads!” & pretending researchers didn't know what they were talking about - I thought it was mostly incompetence. The stuff in @sheeraf's article is absolutely mind-boggling. They knew, very early. http://twitter.com/... Rat King / @mikeisaac : history lesson: kaplan's influence looms large at FB. Kaplan advocated for FB to kowtow to angry conservatives after the Trending Topics incident.http://www.nytimes.com/ ... Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew : I spoke to @ColorOfChange's director about Facebook's reported use of an anti-Semetic smear campaign to undermine their activism. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Matt Stoller / @matthewstoller : Chuck Scumer's daughter works at Facebook, and Schumer worked with Facebook lobbyists to try and get @MarkWarner to back off on criticism of the company. “Mr. Warner should be looking for ways to work with Facebook, Mr. Schumer advised, not harm it.” http://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer