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: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @04:01AM (1 child)
With language like that coming from the Five Eyes' paper of record, I almost wonder if Zuckerfuck is offering them resistance. It might also be that the Five Eyes are determined to tear Failbook down regardless of how much they acquiesce to the demands for bourgeois censorship. Of course, there is likely a fair amount of technical ignorance motivating this saber-rattling also.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @04:21AM
Or... facebook is a garbage company like everybody on soylent has been saying since day one.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @04:03AM (3 children)
I can't believe that the all powerful totally-worth-the-salary CEOs could possibly do wrong.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday November 15 2018, @04:07AM
well at least he kow-towed to Congress. Would they have griped at him more sternly had he showed up in his Grey T-Shirt(TM)?
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday November 15 2018, @05:54AM (1 child)
Sadly, a lot of people really, really want to believe the infallibility of the powerful, want them to be their heroes.
These sorts of boneheaded mistakes happen over and over, thanks to worship of The Man. There aren't enough hours in the day for a CEO of a large company to attend to every matter that might be important. The classic skill of delegation must be engaged.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nuke on Thursday November 15 2018, @10:33AM
bzipitidoo wrote :
Not in detail but they need to know what is going on in the larger sense, recognise what matters, give direction, and have the personality to ensure that their staff obey them and follow that direction. I don't think Zucherberg posseses that personality. But FTFA, it looks like he did have enough hours in the day to work on a cover up :-
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @04:08AM (9 children)
A couple of months ago Zuckerberg said that holocaust denial was just a difference of opinion. And now we find out that dumbass was using Soros conspiracy theories to discredit critics of facebook. For those who have not been paying attention, all Soros conspiracy theories are just anti-semitic dogwhistles. Substituite "soros" with "the joos" to understand the real meaning. Exactly like rothschild conspiracy theories were anti-semitic dogwhistles back in the nazi era. Anti-soros conspiracy theories about him paying for the scaravan in order to bring in brown people to outbreed whites is what got those 11 jews killed two weeks ago.
I'm sure some proto-nazi will come along to say but "Soros really is a bad guy" - fuck off with bullshit because you can't actually name one thing he's done that is even remotely on par with the hate directed at him. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet don't get that shit but they do basically the same stuff with their non-profit foundations as Soros does. And do not even try with that bullshit that soros was a nazi because fuck you.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @04:38AM (2 children)
Calling it "bullshit" doesn't make it wrong.
He has publicly said (in an interview) that the best years of his life were when under Nazi rule he got to help get rid of Jews.
If you're thinking "But he is a Jew!", please note that Hitler's grandmother was too.
Oh, in case you need a reminder, those 11 Jews were killed by a socialist who hated Trump.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday November 15 2018, @04:59AM
george soros best years of my life nazi
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/george-soros-nazi-jew-conspiracy-theory-roseanne-barr-twitter-rant-a8377301.html [independent.co.uk]
He quite his job rather than instruct a bunch of jewish people to go somewhere that they'd be arrested.
He then spent the rest of the war passing as a Christian. The above article mentions the years of therapy that Soros undertook to deal with the pain of having denied his faith.
When the right says "SOROS WORSE THAN HITLOR!!!!OMG PONIES1111" what they're really saying is that Soros doesn't toe the corporate line.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @07:12AM
No, a bunch of anti-semites edited an interview to make it look like he said that. Here is the head of the Anti-Defamation League saying your shitty anti-semitism is shit. [jweekly.com]
Nazis are no more socialist than the DPRK is a democracy. The only reason that nazi "hated" trump was because he thought trump was not enough of a nazi because there were jews in his cabinet.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @09:58AM (2 children)
All of these billionaire pieces of shit are bad guys. They perpetuate our current corrupt, authoritarian system, after all. Just because a lot of critics of Soros are just right-wing lunatics doesn't mean that he isn't actually a bad guy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @06:26PM
The thing is that he's no worse than the lot. But he's the one they fixate on. Fox is all in on soros nazi-signalling, its so bad that even senators are getting high [forward.com] on their own supply [youtube.com] now.
And while the left has its problems with anti-semitism, its orders of magnitude less. If anything guys like Adelson who are objectively anti-democratic authoritarians get off easy.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday November 15 2018, @09:21PM
And you continue to NOT name a single thing he's done wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @03:12PM
Dumbass or dumb like a fox?
Nah, you're probably right.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @01:10AM (1 child)
But if you follow the money [8ch.net] to see who is supporting Islamist front organizations and where this transgender bullshit that popped up out of nowhere came from, the money trail leads back to the Open Society Foundations and the Rothschilds' Astrea, Eranda, Arcadia, Demos, and Avaaz foundations.
There is now a PR campaign to claim that any criticism of them is anti-semitic. Guess who is paying for that?
He funds al-Qaeda, you uninformed dipshit. [8ch.net]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 16 2018, @05:26AM
Why is opposing the crazy bullshit of the "War on Terror" supposed to be sinister? Can't you see the problem? It's all fun and games until you are designated the terrorists. You're citing someone who is willing protecting a weapon of that conspiracy.
(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.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Username on Thursday November 15 2018, @12:10PM (8 children)
Didn't the Zuck advocate for and give facebooks data to the obama administration [investors.com] when Obama was running for reelection? Didn't seem to be a problem then. It's not like it's illegal for other countries to run political ads on facebook, or cnn, or whatever medium either. Nothing illegal happened.
Honestly though, just accept that Hilary was a bad candidate already. It's not like some Hilary supporter saw an ad for orange man and said, "well, shit, I'm gonna vote for that guy." The Hilary vote was already decided months before the election, since she was the only candidate supported by the DNC.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @02:09PM (4 children)
> It's not like it's illegal for other countries to run political ads on facebook, or cnn, or whatever medium either. Nothing illegal happened.
WRONG!! Time for you to take a civics class (again?)
See this page for the actual rules: https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/candidate-taking-receipts/who-can-and-cant-contribute/ [fec.gov]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 15 2018, @04:15PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday November 15 2018, @07:22PM (2 children)
The law refers to foreign nationals not foreign countries. It remains quite legal, via sovereign immunity, for countries to play these games.
Nope, wrong again.
Foreign nationals [fec.gov]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 16 2018, @04:27AM (1 child)
Does Russia agree to this alleged prohibition? I don't recall a treaty that would apply. The story indicates that there isn't actually such a treaty.
(Score: 2) by Username on Saturday November 17 2018, @12:05PM
Don't worry, it isn't even prohibited. An ad isn't a contribution. I can make an ad saying vote for Hilary, and it isn't a contribution to her campaign. Inkind contributions require acknowledgement and approval by the campaign. That's why when you see an ad on tv, they say, "I'm so-and-so and I approved this message."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @02:39PM
"orange man bad"
Give it up already, you weak-ass NPC.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday November 15 2018, @07:20PM (1 child)
It's not like it's illegal for other countries to run political ads on facebook, or cnn, or whatever medium either.
Yes, it absolutely is illegal for foreign nationals to run political ads in a US election.
Foreign nationals [fec.gov]
I guess we've arrived at the "yes we colluded but it's not illegal" phase of denials.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 16 2018, @05:09AM
Who again is "we"? Sure, Russia appears to have played some sort of propaganda game in the US. But you miss the important part of said collusion - the evidence for cooperation between the party alleged to engage in illegal activity and the Trump campaign.