Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis

In just over a decade, Facebook has connected more than 2.2 billion people, a global nation unto itself that reshaped political campaigns, the advertising business and daily life around the world. Along the way, Facebook accumulated one of the largest-ever repositories of personal data, a treasure trove of photos, messages and likes that propelled the company into the Fortune 500. But as evidence accumulated that Facebook’s power could also be exploited to disrupt elections, broadcast viral propaganda and inspire deadly campaigns of hate around the globe, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg stumbled. Bent on growth, the pair ignored warning signs and then sought to conceal them from public view. 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. .This account of how Zuckerberg and Sandberg navigated Facebook’s cascading crises, much of which has not been previously reported, is based on interviews with more than 50 people. Among the reports: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA), who has been one of the tech platform’s chief antagonists on Capitol Hill, that he should be trying to cooperate with Facebook instead of scrutinizing it.