In her first public comments since it was revealed tens of millions of users had their information leaked, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg admitted Thursday that the company “definitely didn’t realize the gravity” of the situation when it first learned about it. But, she insisted, the social network is committed to “earning” back the trust of its users.
Sandberg said the company acted “too slowly” this week in addressing the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where 50 million users had their information lifted by the political data firm in 2014. The firm was eventually contracted by the Trump campaign during its successful 2016 run to the White House.
With a #DeleteFacebook movement trending on Twitter, Sandberg said in an exclusive interview with CNBC that the social network needed to win back its disenchanted audience.
“Earning the trust of the people who use our service is the most important thing we do, and we are very committed to earning it,” Sandberg told CNBC.
When asked whether Facebook chose to cover up the leak from the public in 2015, when it first learned about it, or the company didn’t full understand the gravity of the situation, Sandberg insisted it was the latter.
“We definitely didn’t realize the gravity of these issues sooner, and the commitment we made yesterday was to investigate, to audit, and to tell users if their data was used,” Sandberg told CNBC. “We built a platform that’s used for a lot of good all around the world, but there will always be bad actors who have tried to use the platform and who will use the platform.”
Silicon Valley’s highest-profile female executive has been criticized this week, alongside co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, for failing to publicly address the leak sooner. Sandberg pushed back on reports former Facebook Head of Security Alex Stamos had urged her and Zuckerberg to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election, saying it was “absolutely false.”
Zuckerberg made the media rounds on Wednesday night, telling CNN he’s “really sorry” about the leak. Earlier in the day, Zuckerberg outlined several steps Facebook would be implementing to boost data security, including auditing “suspicious activity” from apps, and notifying users that had their information compromised.
6 Tech Giants Shaking Up News, From Jeff Bezos to Laurene Powell Jobs (Photos)
Tech leaders are increasingly intertwined with the news business. While some want to support old properties, one set out to destroy a new one. Here they are.
Jeff Bezos – Washington Post
The Amazon founder purchased the Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million in cash. President Trump has called the paper the “Amazon Washington Post.”
The Facebook co-founder purchased The New Republic in 2012, becoming executive chairman and publisher. However, he sold the venerable political magazine to Win McCormack in 2016, saying he "underestimated the difficulty of transitioning an old and traditional institution into a digital media company in today’s quickly evolving climate."
The eBay founder is a well-known philanthropist who created First Look Media, a journalism venture behind The Intercept. Inspired by Edward Snowden's leaks. Omidyar teamed up with journalists Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill and Laura Poitras to launch the website “dedicated to the kind of reporting those disclosures required: fearless, adversarial journalism.”
The PayPal co-founder doesn’t own a news organization, but he makes this list because he essentially ended one -- Gawker -- proving once again the power of an angry billionaire. Thiel secretly bankrolled Hulk Hogan’s sex-tape lawsuit against Gawker Media because he was upset that the website once outed him as gay. Hogan won the defamation lawsuit against the site that sent its parent company into bankruptcy, and Gawker.com is no longer operating.
OK, so Facebook isn’t technically a news organization… yet. However, the company is preparing to launch its much-anticipated lineup of original content later this summer, and there are also signs that it's on the verge of becoming an even bigger media platform.
Campbell Brown, Head of News Partnerships at Facebook, confirmed last week it’s developing a subscription service for publishers willing to post articles directly to Facebook Instant Articles, rather than their native websites.
Tech is increasingly intertwined with news, for better or worse
Tech leaders are increasingly intertwined with the news business. While some want to support old properties, one set out to destroy a new one. Here they are.