Media blitz may not be enough to ease pressure

Barbara Ortutay analysis

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has embarked on a rare media mini-blitz in an attempt to take some of the public and political pressure off the social network.

But it’s far from clear whether he’s won over United States and European authorities, much less the broader public whose status updates provide Facebook with an endless stream of data it uses to sell targeted ads.

The generally reclusive Zuckerberg sat for an interview on CNN yesterday and gave another to the publication addressing reports that Cambridge Analytica purloined the data of more than 50 million Facebook users in order to sway elections. The Trump campaign paid the firm $6 million ($8.3m) during the 2016 election, although it has since distanced itself from Cambridge.

While several experts said Zuckerberg took an important step with the CNN interview, few were convinced that he put the Cambridge issue behind him. Zuckerberg’s apology, for instance, seemed rushed and pro forma to Helio Fred Garcia, a crisis-management professor at NYU and Columbia University.

“He didn’t acknowledge the harm or potential harm to the affected users,” Garcia said. “I doubt most people realised he was apologising.”

Zuckerberg said Facebook would “audit” apps that exhibit troubling behaviour.

That audit would be a giant undertaking, said David Carroll, a media researcher at the Parsons School of Design in New York — one that he said would likely turn up a vast number of apps that did “troubling, distressing things”.

Zuckerberg also avoided being pinned down on whether he supported regulation for Facebook and other internet giants.

“They’ll fight tooth and nail to fight being regulated,” said Timothy Carone, a Notre Dame business professor. “In six months we’ll be having the same conversations.”

Even Facebook’s plan to let users know about data leaks may put the onus on users to educate themselves. Zuckerberg said Facebook would “build a tool” that lets users see if their information had been impacted by the Cambridge leak, suggesting that the company won’t be notifying people automatically. Facebook took this kind of do-it-yourself approach in the case of Russian election meddling, in contrast to Twitter, which notified users who had been exposed to Russian propaganda on its network.

Paul Argenti, a business professor at Dartmouth, said that while Zuckerberg’s comments hit the right notes, they still probably aren’t enough. “The question is, can you really trust Facebook,” he said. “I don’t think that question has been answered.”