Facebook Finally Breaks Its Silence About Mark Zuckerberg’s Absence During Its Data Scandal

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Days after the explosive report from The Guardian detailing how Cambridge Analytica used the data of 50 million Facebook users to create “information warfare” in order to influence the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg is nowhere to be seen. The Facebook CEO reportedly no-showed an internal briefing to discuss the company’s role in the data scandal that seems to be expanding by the day.

CNN spoke to a top-level executive, who remained anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the story and explained that this is typical of Zuckerberg. “It’s his company. People on the outside want to hear from him. There is a sense that Mark doesn’t get his hands dirty until problems are way too far down the road,” he said.

Another Facebook employee told The Verge: “The prevailing sentiment is, why haven’t we heard from Mark?” As the company’s stock plunges and outrage builds both publicly and within the company, the same question is being asked: “Where’s Mark?”

A Facebook spokesperson addressed the question in a statement to The Daily Beast:

“Mark, Sheryl and their teams are working around the clock to get all the facts and take the appropriate action moving forward, because they understand the seriousness of this issue. The entire company is outraged we were deceived. We are committed to vigorously enforcing our policies to protect people’s information and will take whatever steps are required to see that this happens.”

Meanwhile, Cambridge Analytica has suspended its CEO, Alexander Nix, after he was filmed bragging about entrapping politicians with sex workers. Additionally, the FTC has begun a probe into whether Facebook violated a 2011 consent decree by handing over user data without their knowledge or consent and a #DeleteFacebook movement has begun in earnest.

(Via CNN/Gizmodo/The Daily Beast)

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