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Facebook Executives Ignored Warnings, Deflected Blame as Scandals Mounted, Report Says :
From Russian election meddling to a massive data privacy scandal, Facebook has faced a seemingly endless list of troubles. Now, a new report suggests the social network's leadership may be among its biggest challenges.
Over the past three years, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg ignored warnings, deflected blame and were distracted by other projects as the social network lurched from crisis to crisis, according to a more than 5,000-word report by The New York Times. The paper, which interviewed more than 50 people for the story, painted an unflattering portrait of two executives' handling of the series of scandals, some of which eventually promoted [Ed: prompted?] Congress to ask both of them to testify.
The piece focused on Facebook's handling of fake news posted by Russian trolls ahead of the 2016 presidential, the impact of which Zuckerberg initially dismissed as "crazy," and the company's efforts to deflect blame after data of 87 million users was harvested by political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. The story also touched on in-fighting at the highest of levels of the company.
"Bent on growth, the pair ignored warning signs and then sought to conceal them from public view," The Times wrote. "At critical moments over the last three years, they were distracted by personal projects, and passed off security and policy decisions to subordinates, according to current and former executives."
Facebook told the paper it was committed to addressing the challenges.
Honesty: The absence of the intent to deceive.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @04:42AM (14 children)
Russians spent about $200,000 in an election that cost the candidates $2,000,000,000.
That is a factor of 10,000. That is 0.01% of the total being spent by Russia.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @05:07AM (2 children)
I know, right? In 2016 it was Hillary's turn to be president. The election was stolen from her because of interference from the russian hackers.
But now things are different -- all social media accounts of the russian hackers have been shut down once and for all. I look forward to November 2020 when Hillary finally gets her turn... and for the United States' triumphant return back to the right side of history.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @03:15PM (1 child)
Don't forget the electoral college.
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Thursday November 15 2018, @04:06PM
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @07:16AM (1 child)
Public numbers just for the budget of Russia's internet research agency troll-farm alone are $1.25M. [businessinsider.com]
Expect to see a couple of orders of magnitude more than that when Mueller's report is released.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 16 2018, @05:28AM
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @08:27AM (7 children)
If their purpose was to spread FUD, then they have succeeded beyond their wildest imaginations. Even if they failed to incite a race war [cnn.com], the Russians have gotten a lot of bang for their ruble just from the reaction to their efforts. They will be spending more money to interfere with the 2020 elections.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by VLM on Thursday November 15 2018, @12:33PM (1 child)
Our leftists feel entitled to support from Russian leftist commie leaders for a couple generations, and the Russians not having a commie in charge means our leftists feel hurt and abandoned, so unless Putin is overthrown and replaced by a genetic clone of Lenin before 2020, you can safely assume our local leftists will still have sour grapes that Russians is cleansed of leftism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @04:36PM
There is the crazy again. At leadt conservatives are coming back to their senses after two years of suddenly loving Russia for some strange homoerotoc readon. What you think Putin's shirtless pics were not cas refully crafted intentional pieces?
Just look at VLM getting all red and sweaty.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @02:36PM (4 children)
The GOP has spent decades tee-ing it up for them, the russians just swooped in and took advantage of the situation. Even if the russians were totally neutralized the GOP would continue their project to end democracy in the USA. Just look at their attempts to disenfranchise voters this election cycle, especially military deployed overseas who mail in their ballots.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 15 2018, @04:11PM (3 children)
So silly to get partisan at this point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @06:29PM
callow stilling making bad takes to diddle himself in public. furthermore proof that you can't fix stupid.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday November 15 2018, @07:16PM (1 child)
So silly to get partisan at this point.
Democrats want more people to vote. Republicans want fewer people to vote. It's really that simple...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 16 2018, @01:31AM
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday November 15 2018, @07:13PM
Russians spent about $200,000 in an election that cost the candidates $2,000,000,000.
It's illegal for Russia to spend even $1 to affect an election.