Patcnews Reports Facebook is Targeting Blocking Conservative Tea Party Groups
And Facebook Allows Cop Killer Groups without being block Hash Tag #FBI
Facebook Sketches a Future With a Diminished News Feed
For most of the past year, Mark Zuckerberg has been trying to convince the world that Facebook was fast becoming a very different company—one that accepted its enormous role in shaping public opinion worldwide and would spend what it took to exercise its power responsibly. Many still have trouble believing him, and it's easy to understand why. Every
time it seems as if Facebook is making no progress against the cyber attacks with the use of snapchat with ihpones devices,
spammers, and trolls hell-bent on turning it into a cesspool of hate
speech and fake news with snapchat, new problems surface. It's gone to huge lengths,
for example, to tout its work to bring more transparency and reduced
fraud to political ads. But Tuesday, just before Facebook released its
results, Vice News reported that it had attempted to place ads on Facebook while posing as each of the 100 US senators. Facebook approved them all
and Mark Zuckerberg gave 4.5 million dollars to Democratic National Committee
List OF Political Figures Who been attack by Facebook
Senator Ted Cruz , Senator Mike Lee
Senator Tim Scott, Senator Joni Ernst
U.S. Representative Trey Gowdy
U.S. Representative Mike Kelly
U.S. Representative Mia Love
Facebook is Screwups like bunch of monkeys twice-a-month and blocking conservative
events pages for the past year, seemingly unending. Zuckerberg and his executives and engineers at Facebook at not the smartest people in the world, lack of experienced and talent in the world tackling to solve major problems. Yet they look like pedophile nerds who are using their fingers to keep blocking conservative news links and groups off on facebook... Jack Dorsey From Twitter wants to block all conservative tweets and shut down all conservative accounts down...
Jack Dorsey did in fact tweet all conservatives on twitter need to have there face mash-in we don't want conservatives using social media
And Mark Zuckerberg says I don't want this leaking-out with the use of Gab.
This is For the FBI, NSA, CIA, NCIS and AFT as well.. The time is now for Holding
Facebook accountable for censorship attacking conservative groups and not blocking or censoring taking down islamic muslims terrorists groups off out on Facebook for this reason Facebook is violation of it's own policy laws that is in violation freedom of press laws.... Facebook is facing major action criminal lawsuits it's critical now that Facebook need to pay damages. But will not be willing to have a discussion obscures an
equally important transformation going on at the company: For most of
its existence, users associated Facebook with News Feed—that scrolling
list of stories and ads that appears when you first visit the site.
That's changing, and fast, Zuckerberg said as the company reported
third-quarter financial results on Tuesday. He
said traffic to new platforms like Stories on both Facebook and
Instagram, which Facebook owns, and its messaging platforms WhatsApp and
Messenger, is growing so fast that they are diluting News Feed's
cultural force and may eventually challenge it as the company’s dominant
revenue generator. "People feel more comfortable being themselves when
their content is seen by smaller groups, and (the posts) don’t stick
around forever, " Zuckerberg said, referring to two Stories features he
said users like. Facebook is still a financial
juggernaut. It reported profit of $5.1 billion in the third quarter on
revenue of $13.7 billion. But as it telegraphed when it reported
earnings three months ago, its growth has slowed precipitously.
Investors had gotten used to double-digit percentage growth in
everything at Facebook every quarter. But in the third quarter,
Facebook’s profit increased 9 percent over the same quarter a year
earlier, the slowest rate of increase in more than three years;
moreover, third-quarter profit increased a scant 1 percent from the
second quarter. Facebook supports Black lives matter and and MeToo movement angry nasty women march with hate speech and Mark Zuckerberg did in-fact made death threats remarks to Brett Kavanaugh Trump President And Vice President Mike Pence back in October 3, 2018 Hash Tag #FBI
Growth in Facebook Inc.’s FB -0.03% ad sales will slow at least temporarily, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged this week, as advertisers trail users in moving to the network’s newer format of Stories from its news feed. Mr. Zuckerberg said he is confident that Facebook can ride out the transition, but marketers have a new learning curve to quickly climb if they want to stay close to consumers.
“Because the way people consume Stories is so different than the way they consume Feed content, everything from the creative strategy, to the story you want to tell, to the physical way you are shooting the asset is different,” said Kerry Perse, managing director of social at Omnicom media agency OMD. More than 1 billion Stories—montages of photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours—are shared daily across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Facebook said on its third-quarter earnings call Tuesday. “All of the trends that we’ve seen suggest that in the not-too-distant future, people will be sharing more into Stories than they will into Feeds,” Mr. Zuckerberg said on the call. Facebook’s pitch for ads on Stories isn’t only about the format’s popularity. The ads on Stories grab attention because they take over the entire screen of the phone, offering marketers a large, interactive canvas for their photos and videos, ad buyers say.
The flip side is an ad format that is uncommon outside of Snapchat, which pioneered the Stories format. The “first thing to get push back on in production meetings” is
shooting ads vertically, to fit the way users hold their mobile phones,
said Mark Sytsma, associate director of paid social at Huge, a digital
ad agency.
There are other considerations particular to Stories ads, such as the need to create photos and videos that instantly attract users’ attention and prevent them from tapping the screen to skip ahead. “You’re at the mercy of a users’ thumb clicking through the story very quickly,” said Wesley MacLaggan, senior vice president of marketing at Marin Software , an ad-management platform. Facebook declined to comment for this article, pointing to executives’ comments on the earnings call and elsewhere. The more time users spend in interacting with Stories, the more opportunity there is for Facebook to serve ads. Yet advertiser demand for new formats can lag user engagement as they attempt to figure out how to drive the best results from them, which can initially lead to lower prices in the auction-based ad environment. The cost of 1,000 user impressions on Facebook Stories, which only rolled out globally to all advertisers in September, is around $4, compared with $5 on the news feed, according to marketing technology company 4C Insights.
and Mark Zuckerberg gave 4.5 million dollars to Democratic National Committee
List OF Political Figures Who been attack by Facebook
Senator Ted Cruz , Senator Mike Lee
Senator Tim Scott, Senator Joni Ernst
U.S. Representative Trey Gowdy
U.S. Representative Mike Kelly
U.S. Representative Mia Love
Facebook is Screwups like bunch of monkeys twice-a-month and blocking conservative
events pages for the past year, seemingly unending. Zuckerberg and his executives and engineers at Facebook at not the smartest people in the world, lack of experienced and talent in the world tackling to solve major problems. Yet they look like pedophile nerds who are using their fingers to keep blocking conservative news links and groups off on facebook... Jack Dorsey From Twitter wants to block all conservative tweets and shut down all conservative accounts down...
Jack Dorsey did in fact tweet all conservatives on twitter need to have there face mash-in we don't want conservatives using social media
And Mark Zuckerberg says I don't want this leaking-out with the use of Gab.
Gab has spent the past 48 hours proudly
working with the DOJ and FBI to bring justice
to an alleged terrorist. Because of the data
we provided, they now have plenty of
evidence for their case. In the midst of this
Gab has been no-platformed by
essential internet infrastructure providers at
every level. We are the most censored,
smeared, and no-platformed startup in
history, which means we are a threat to the
media and to the Silicon Valley Oligarchy.
Gab isn’t going anywhere. It doesn’t matter
Gab isn’t going anywhere. It doesn’t matter
what you write. It doesn’t matter what the
sophist talking heads say on TV.
It doesn’t matter what verified nobodies say
on Twitter. We have plenty of options,
resources, and support. We will exercise
every possible avenue to keep Gab online
and defend free speech and individual
liberty for all people.You have all just made
Gab a nationally recognized brand as the
home of free speech online at a time when
Silicon Valley is stifling political speech they
disagree with to interfere in a US election.
The internet is not reality. TV is not reality.
80% of normal everyday people agree with
Gab and support free expression and liberty.
The online outrage mob and mainstream
media spin machine are the minority opinion.
People are waking up, so please keep
pointing the finger at a social network instead
of pointing the finger at the alleged
shooter who holds sole responsibility for his
actions. No-platform us all you want. Ban us
all you want. Smear us all you want.
You can’t stop an idea. As we transition to a
You can’t stop an idea. As we transition to a
new hosting provider Gab will be
inaccessible for a period of time. We are
working around the clock to get Gab.com
back online. Thank you and remember to
speak freely.
Andrew Torba, CEO Gab.com
As Facebook Users Shift to Stories, Advertisers Look to Follow
Ad spend on Stories is growing but marketers are still playing catch-up
Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press
Comments
Growth in Facebook Inc.’s FB -0.03% ad sales will slow at least temporarily, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged this week, as advertisers trail users in moving to the network’s newer format of Stories from its news feed. Mr. Zuckerberg said he is confident that Facebook can ride out the transition, but marketers have a new learning curve to quickly climb if they want to stay close to consumers.
“Because the way people consume Stories is so different than the way they consume Feed content, everything from the creative strategy, to the story you want to tell, to the physical way you are shooting the asset is different,” said Kerry Perse, managing director of social at Omnicom media agency OMD. More than 1 billion Stories—montages of photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours—are shared daily across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Facebook said on its third-quarter earnings call Tuesday. “All of the trends that we’ve seen suggest that in the not-too-distant future, people will be sharing more into Stories than they will into Feeds,” Mr. Zuckerberg said on the call. Facebook’s pitch for ads on Stories isn’t only about the format’s popularity. The ads on Stories grab attention because they take over the entire screen of the phone, offering marketers a large, interactive canvas for their photos and videos, ad buyers say.
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There are other considerations particular to Stories ads, such as the need to create photos and videos that instantly attract users’ attention and prevent them from tapping the screen to skip ahead. “You’re at the mercy of a users’ thumb clicking through the story very quickly,” said Wesley MacLaggan, senior vice president of marketing at Marin Software , an ad-management platform. Facebook declined to comment for this article, pointing to executives’ comments on the earnings call and elsewhere. The more time users spend in interacting with Stories, the more opportunity there is for Facebook to serve ads. Yet advertiser demand for new formats can lag user engagement as they attempt to figure out how to drive the best results from them, which can initially lead to lower prices in the auction-based ad environment. The cost of 1,000 user impressions on Facebook Stories, which only rolled out globally to all advertisers in September, is around $4, compared with $5 on the news feed, according to marketing technology company 4C Insights.
More in CMO Today.
Facebook Supports
Hands Up Don't Shoot Black Lives Matter Terrorist Groups on Facebook
Facebook Lawsuit
Facebook Lawsuit
Apple hits back and blocks Facebook from running its internal iOS apps
Facebook’s internal iOS apps simply don’t launch anymore
By
Apple has shut down Facebook’s ability to distribute
internal iOS apps, from early releases of the Facebook app to basic
tools like a lunch menu. A person familiar with the situation tells The Verge that
early versions of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and other pre-release
“dogfood” (beta) apps have stopped working, as have other employee
apps, like one for transportation. Facebook is treating this as a
critical problem internally, we’re told, as the affected apps simply
don’t launch on employees’ phones anymore.
The shutdown comes in response to news that Facebook has
been using Apple’s program for internal app distribution to track
teenage customers with a “research” app.
That app, revealed yesterday by TechCrunch,
was distributed outside of the App Store using Apple’s enterprise
program, which allows developers to use special certificates to install
more powerful apps onto iPhones. Those apps are only supposed to be used
by a company’s employees, however, and Facebook had been distributing
its tracking app to customers. Facebook later said it would shut down the app.
This poses a huge issue for Facebook. While Apple
provides other tools a company can use to install apps internally,
Apple’s enterprise program is the main solution for widely distributing
internal apps and services. We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment.
In a statement given to Recode,
Apple said that Facebook was in “clear breach of their agreement with
Apple.” Any developer that breaches that agreement, Apple said, has
their distribution certificates revoked, “which is what we did in this
case to protect our users and their data.” We’ve reached out to Apple
for comment on shutting down Facebook’s other internal apps.
Revoking a certificate not only stops apps from being
distributed on iOS, but it also stops apps from working. And because
internal apps by the same organization or developer may be connected to a
single certificate, it can lead to immense headaches like the one
Facebook now finds itself in where a multitude of internal apps have
been shut down.
Apple and Facebook have already been bickering over
privacy, but this is the first instance of Apple taking an action that
directly shuts down some of Facebook’s activities. Last March, Apple CEO
Tim Cook criticized Facebook’s handling
of the Cambridge Analytica data sharing scandal, saying, “I wouldn’t be
in this situation” if he were running the company. Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg later said the comments were “extremely glib” and spoke of Apple as a company that “work[s] hard to charge you more.”
Next Up In Tech
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- TechCrunch found that Facebook had been paying people to install a research app that grants access to all of the user's phone and web activity.
- Following the report, Apple said the app violates its policies.
- A Facebook spokesperson said the app had "a clear on-boarding process" that asked participants for permission.
Apple has revoked some developer privileges from Facebook following a TechCrunch report
that said Facebook was paying some users, including teenagers, to
download an app that provided a deep level of access to activity on the
user's phone.
Asked about the report, an Apple spokesperson told CNBC on Wednesday that Facebook violated its policies by distributing "a data-collecting app to consumers." Apple has revoked Facebook's "enterprise certificates" that let it distribute the activity-tracking app to users.
"We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization," the spokesperson said. "Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple. Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data."
Facebook will still be allowed to list its apps in Apple's App Store. Apple only revoked Facebook's ability to distribute apps through a method designed to let developers internally test apps that have not been released yet. Under Apple's rules, developers can only distribute those apps to their own employees. But Facebook was distributing the data-collecting app to people not employed by the social media company, according to TechCrunch. This could also affect Facebook's ability to test its apps internally before releasing them publicly in Apple's App Store. Facebook paid users ages 13 to 35 as much as $20 per month plus referral fees for participating in its research program by downloading the "Facebook Research" app on iOS or Android, TechCrunch reported. The program, which began in 2016, is administered through several beta testing services, which TechCrunch said helped mask Facebook's involvement in the program. Facebook disputed that its involvement was secretive, but it is ending the program through Apple.
Facebook's research app could potentially collect
user data including private messages and photos sent to others through
various messaging apps, web searches and location information, security
expert Will Strafach of Guardian Mobile Firewall told TechCrunch.
A Facebook spokesperson told CNBC, "Key facts about this market research program are being ignored. Despite early reports, there was nothing 'secret' about this; it was literally called the Facebook Research App. It wasn't 'spying' as all of the people who signed up to participate went through a clear on-boarding process asking for their permission and were paid to participate. Finally, less than 5 percent of the people who chose to participate in this market research program were teens. All of them with signed parental consent forms."
Asked about the report, an Apple spokesperson told CNBC on Wednesday that Facebook violated its policies by distributing "a data-collecting app to consumers." Apple has revoked Facebook's "enterprise certificates" that let it distribute the activity-tracking app to users.
"We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization," the spokesperson said. "Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple. Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data."
Facebook will still be allowed to list its apps in Apple's App Store. Apple only revoked Facebook's ability to distribute apps through a method designed to let developers internally test apps that have not been released yet. Under Apple's rules, developers can only distribute those apps to their own employees. But Facebook was distributing the data-collecting app to people not employed by the social media company, according to TechCrunch. This could also affect Facebook's ability to test its apps internally before releasing them publicly in Apple's App Store. Facebook paid users ages 13 to 35 as much as $20 per month plus referral fees for participating in its research program by downloading the "Facebook Research" app on iOS or Android, TechCrunch reported. The program, which began in 2016, is administered through several beta testing services, which TechCrunch said helped mask Facebook's involvement in the program. Facebook disputed that its involvement was secretive, but it is ending the program through Apple.
Apple has revoked some developer privileges from Facebook following a TechCrunch report
that said Facebook was paying some users, including teenagers, to
download an app that provided a deep level of access to activity on the
user's phone.
Asked about the report, an Apple spokesperson told CNBC on Wednesday that Facebook violated its policies by distributing "a data-collecting app to consumers." Apple has revoked Facebook's "enterprise certificates" that let it distribute the activity-tracking app to users.
Asked about the report, an Apple spokesperson told CNBC on Wednesday that Facebook violated its policies by distributing "a data-collecting app to consumers." Apple has revoked Facebook's "enterprise certificates" that let it distribute the activity-tracking app to users.
"We designed our Enterprise Developer Program
solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization,"
the spokesperson said. "Facebook has been using their membership to
distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach
of their agreement with Apple. Any developer using their enterprise
certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their
certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our
users and their data."
Facebook will still be allowed to list its apps in Apple's App Store. Apple only revoked Facebook's ability to distribute apps through a method designed to let developers internally test apps that have not been released yet. Under Apple's rules, developers can only distribute those apps to their own employees. But Facebook was distributing the data-collecting app to people not employed by the social media company, according to TechCrunch. This could also affect Facebook's ability to test its apps internally before releasing them publicly in Apple's App Store.
Facebook will still be allowed to list its apps in Apple's App Store. Apple only revoked Facebook's ability to distribute apps through a method designed to let developers internally test apps that have not been released yet. Under Apple's rules, developers can only distribute those apps to their own employees. But Facebook was distributing the data-collecting app to people not employed by the social media company, according to TechCrunch. This could also affect Facebook's ability to test its apps internally before releasing them publicly in Apple's App Store.
Facebook paid users ages
13 to 35 as much as $20 per month plus referral fees for participating
in its research program by downloading the "Facebook Research" app on
iOS or Android, TechCrunch reported. The program, which began in 2016,
is administered through several beta testing services, which TechCrunch
said helped mask Facebook's involvement in the program. Facebook
disputed that its involvement was secretive, but it is ending the
program through Apple.
A Facebook spokesperson told CNBC, "Key facts about this market research program are being ignored. Despite early reports, there was nothing 'secret' about this; it was literally called the Facebook Research App. It wasn't 'spying' as all of the people who signed up to participate went through a clear on-boarding process asking for their permission and were paid to participate. Finally, less than 5 percent of the people who chose to participate in this market research program were teens. All of them with signed parental consent forms."
The experience of Instagram, where Stories arrived earlier,
suggests that the price of Facebook Stories advertising will eventually
catch up to feed ads. The CPM—advertising parlance for the cost per
thousand ad impressions—for an Instagram ad in either Stories or the
feed was roughly $4 over the past month, a 4C spokeswoman said. Depending on the specific audiences that brands are looking to
target, the CPMs on Instagram Stories can run into the $20 range, said
Huge’s Mr. Sytsma. And Marin Software clients’ spending on Instagram Stories grew
to 25% of their Instagram outlay in the third quarter of this year from
8% a year earlier, Mr. MacLaggan said. The percentage of Facebook spend directed toward Facebook Stories remains a “fraction of a percent,” he said. To help close the gap between consumers and advertisers,
Facebook is offering clients so-called Stories School education sessions
to marketers and their agencies. Facebook’s Ad Manager tool may also benefit Stories ads in the
long run. It lets marketers easily buy inventory across its products,
including the main app, Instagram and its Audience Network, which runs
ads across outside apps and websites. Buyers can tick boxes to send
their creative work across Facebook’s entire portfolio, without having
to buy each separately. As the Stories ad format continues to gain
popularity on Instagram, the Ad Manager tool may encourage more buyers
to purchase Stories ads on Facebook’s other platforms. Still, the news feed isn’t going away, with 1.5 billion users logging into Facebook every day. For some clients, Stories ads are driving more engagement, such
as swiping up to learn more about a product, than ads in the feed,
according to Courtney Blount, group director at MDC Partners media
planning and buying agency the Media Kitchen. But the feed still offers
the chance to reach more people.
We “continue to use both and keep both within our mix,” Ms. Blount said. Write to Lara O’Reilly at lara.o'reilly@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications More than 1 billion Stories are shared daily on Facebook. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated 1 billion users share Stories daily.
Palmer Luckey said to blame his ouster on politics
Facebook Inc. executive and virtual-reality wunderkind Palmer Luckey
was a rising star of Silicon Valley when, at the height of the 2016
presidential contest, he donated $10,000 to an anti-Hillary Clinton
group.
His donation sparked a backlash from his colleagues. Six months later, he was out. Neither Facebook FB, -1.97% nor Luckey has ever said why he left the social-media giant. When testifying before Congress about data privacy earlier this year, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg denied the departure had anything to do with politics.
Luckey, it turns out, was put on leave, then fired, according to people familiar with the matter. More recently, he has told people the reason was his support for Donald Trump and the furor that his political beliefs sparked within Facebook and Silicon Valley, some of those people say.
Internal Facebook emails suggest the matter was discussed at the highest levels of the company. In the fall of 2016, as unhappiness over the donation simmered, Facebook executives including Zuckerberg pressured Luckey to publicly voice support for libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, despite Luckey’s yearslong support of Trump, according to people familiar with the conversations and internal emails viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Luckey’s ouster from Facebook was a harbinger of battles that have broken out over the past year over the overwhelmingly liberal culture of Silicon Valley, which has given the tech industry public-relations headaches and brought unwanted attention from Washington.
Now Facebook wants to Control and Buy out Youtube so it will be change to FaceTube TV
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
Also popular on WSJ.com:
Mark Zuckerberg at a congressional hearing in April.CreditCreditTom Brenner/ The New York Times
We “continue to use both and keep both within our mix,” Ms. Blount said. Write to Lara O’Reilly at lara.o'reilly@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications More than 1 billion Stories are shared daily on Facebook. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated 1 billion users share Stories daily.
The Wall Street Journal
Top Facebook VR exec may have been fired for his Trump support
Palmer Luckey said to blame his ouster on politics
Facebook Inc. executive and virtual-reality wunderkind Palmer Luckey
was a rising star of Silicon Valley when, at the height of the 2016
presidential contest, he donated $10,000 to an anti-Hillary Clinton
group.His donation sparked a backlash from his colleagues. Six months later, he was out. Neither Facebook FB, -1.97% nor Luckey has ever said why he left the social-media giant. When testifying before Congress about data privacy earlier this year, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg denied the departure had anything to do with politics.
Luckey, it turns out, was put on leave, then fired, according to people familiar with the matter. More recently, he has told people the reason was his support for Donald Trump and the furor that his political beliefs sparked within Facebook and Silicon Valley, some of those people say.
Internal Facebook emails suggest the matter was discussed at the highest levels of the company. In the fall of 2016, as unhappiness over the donation simmered, Facebook executives including Zuckerberg pressured Luckey to publicly voice support for libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, despite Luckey’s yearslong support of Trump, according to people familiar with the conversations and internal emails viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Luckey’s ouster from Facebook was a harbinger of battles that have broken out over the past year over the overwhelmingly liberal culture of Silicon Valley, which has given the tech industry public-relations headaches and brought unwanted attention from Washington.
Now Facebook wants to Control and Buy out Youtube so it will be change to FaceTube TV
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
Also popular on WSJ.com:
Facebook at War: 6 Key Takeaways From The Times’s Investigation
Mark Zuckerberg at a congressional hearing in April.CreditTom Brenner/The New York Times
For more than a year, Facebook has endured cascading crises
— over Russian misinformation, data privacy and abusive content — that
transformed the Silicon Valley icon into an embattled giant accused of corporate overreach and negligence.
An investigation by The New York Times
revealed how Facebook fought back against its critics: with delays,
denials and a full-bore campaign in Washington. Here are six takeaways.
Facebook knew about Russian interference
In fall 2016, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, was publicly declaring it a “crazy idea” that his company had played a role in deciding the election. But security experts at the company already knew otherwise.
They
found signs as early as spring 2016 that Russian hackers were poking
around the Facebook accounts of people linked to American presidential
campaigns. Months later, they saw Russian-controlled accounts sharing
information from hacked Democratic emails
with reporters. Facebook accumulated evidence of Russian activity for
over a year before executives opted to share what they knew with the
public — and even their own board of directors.
Advertisement
The company feared Trump supporters
In 2015, when the presidential candidate Donald J. Trump called for a ban
of Muslim immigrants, Facebook employees and outside critics called on
the company to punish Mr. Trump. Mr. Zuckerberg considered it — asking
subordinates whether Mr. Trump had violated the company’s rules and
whether his account should be suspended or the post removed.
But
while Mr. Zuckerberg was personally offended, he deferred to
subordinates who warned that penalizing Mr. Trump would set off a
damaging backlash among Republicans.
Mr. Trump’s post remained up.
Read The Times’s investigation here.
Facebook launched a multipronged attack and lobbying campaign
As criticism grew over Facebook’s belated admissions of Russian influence,
the company launched a lobbying campaign — overseen by Sheryl Sandberg,
the company’s chief operating officer — to combat critics and shift
anger toward rival tech firms.
Facebook
hired Senator Mark Warner’s former chief of staff to lobby him; Ms.
Sandberg personally called Senator Amy Klobuchar to complain about her
criticism. The company also deployed a public relations firm to push
negative stories about its political critics and cast blame on companies
like Google.
Advertisement
Those
efforts included depicting the billionaire liberal donor George Soros
as the force behind a broad anti-Facebook movement, and publishing
stories praising Facebook and criticizing Google and Apple on a
conservative news site.
Cambridge Analytica raised the stakes
Facebook faced worldwide outrage in March after The Times, The Observer of London and The Guardian published a joint investigation
into how user data had been appropriated by Cambridge Analytica to
profile American voters. But inside Facebook, executives thought they
could contain the damage. The company installed a new chief of American
lobbying to help quell the bipartisan anger in Congress, and it quietly
shelved an internal communications campaign, called “We Get It,” meant
to assure employees that the company was committed to getting back on
track in 2018.
Some criticisms hurt more than others
Sensing
Facebook’s vulnerability, some rival tech firms in Silicon Valley
sought to use the outcry to promote their own brands. After Tim Cook,
Apple’s chief executive, quipped in an interview that his company did
not traffic in personal data, Mr. Zuckerberg ordered his management team
to use only Android phones. After all, he reasoned, the operating
system had far more users than Apple’s.
Facebook still has friends
Washington’s senior Democrat, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, raised more money from Facebook employees than any other member of Congress during the 2016 election cycle — and he was there when the company needed him.
This
past summer, as Facebook’s troubles mounted, Mr. Schumer confronted Mr.
Warner, who by then had emerged as Facebook’s most insistent inquisitor
in Congress. Back off, Mr. Schumer told Mr. Warner, and look for ways
to work with Facebook, not vilify it. Lobbyists for Facebook — which
also employs Mr. Schumer’s daughter — were kept abreast of Mr. Schumer’s
efforts.