Zuckerberg finally appears – but is it too little too late?
“I’m really sorry this happened,” said Mark Zuckerberg, blinking in the media spotlight he’d steadfastly avoided in the immediate aftermath of the scandal over the use of Facebook users’ data by Cambridge Analytica. He went on to state that he would be “happy” to testify before the US Congress, “if it’s right thing to do”.
“The goal there is to get Congress all the information they need to do their extremely important job and we want to send whoever is best informed.”
Ah, right. You may remember that last year a deputy was dispatched to answer questions on Russian actors seeking to influence American democracy through the social network. Anyone want to quote odds on the likelihood of a repeat?
The silence from the Facebook founder has been deafening over the last couple of days. Any halfway competent PR advisor will tell you that this has made a bad situation for his company very much worse through allowing others to seize control of the narrative.
The media has run riot. A new hashtag is trending: “#deletefacebook”. Even the co-founder of WhatsApp – bought by Facebook for $19bn – tweeted it. Brian Acton said: “It is time.” Ouch.
Meanwhile, the academic who designed the personality app that harvested the personal details of 30m users said he had been made a scapegoat. Cambridge Analytica denied any wrong doing, insisting that it deleted the data it had obtained through the app when told to do so by Facebook.
It suspended its CEO in the wake of comments which appeared to outline some of the tactics the firm could use to discredit politicians online, but said the way they had been broadcast by Channel Four misrepresented them. Sorry, grossly misrepresented them.
Say what you like about the firm, but it least it has proved decisive, in stark contrast to Mr Zuckerberg who kept his counsel. Presumably that was to give his lawyers and other advisors lots of time to input into the statement he finally put out, via Facebook (of course).
In it there are jabs at Mr Kogan and Cambridge Analytica, combined with an assertion that Facebook had already taken steps back to protect its users back in 2014 when the problem, unbeknown to Facebook users, emerged.
More in on the way. Those who haven’t #deletedfacebook will next month get a tool to show them the apps they’ve allowed to access data along with an “easy way” to revoke any permissions they might have given. A mass audit of apps is coming.
“This response falls far short Mark. You’re still not being honest with the American people. There is no way you didn’t know they had our data,” said one Facebook user in response to Mr Zuckerberg’s post, to a chorus of digital cheers.
Not only is all this coming too late to have even a faint chance of damping down the firestorm which is raging. It’s too little.
But it isn’t really about that. This is about belatedly positioning Facebook’s troops at the start of what will be a long war that will drag in not just politicians but lots and lots and lots and lots of lawyers.
As a counter-strike it was pretty limp. Mr Zuckerberg hasn’t proven himself to be much of a general. His investors, down $50bn and counting, had better hope the former Harvard man hasn’t lost his appetite for study.