Menlo Park social networking giant Facebook has spent almost every news cycle since the 2016 U.S. presidential election responding and reacting to political criticism.
Between the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal, allegations of foreign actors utilizing Facebook’s platform to target users, as well as criticism that Facebook’s content moderation tools fail to truly protect users, Facebook and company CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg have witnessed their fair share of condemnation.
A November 14th, 2018 New York Times report now alleges that Zuckerberg and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg repeatedly ignored multiple red flags indicating patterns of concern in the wake of the 2016 presidential elections, in favour of growing the company.
Tucked away in that report is a throwaway line alleging that Zuckerberg instructed his management team to exclusively use Android devices after Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized Facebook in an interview with MSNBC.
Facebook has now published a response to the New York Times, claiming that the piece contains a “number of inaccuracies.”
The company used a November 15th, 2018 media release to issue a step-by-step rebuttal of the claims made by the publication.
Facebook’s media release addresses concerns about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, U.S. President Donald Trump’s so-called Muslim Ban, Facebook’s unending quest to combat disinformation on its platform, Sandberg’s support of anti-sex trafficking legislation, as well the allegation that Zuckerberg instructed his subordinates to avoid Apple smartphones.
According to Facebook, the company encourages its employees to use Android devices because the Google-maintained mobile operating system is the most-popular in the world.
“Tim Cook has consistently criticized our business model and Mark has been equally clear he disagrees,” reads an excerpt from the November 15th media release.
“And we’ve long encouraged our employees and executives to use Android because it is the most popular operating system in the world.”
Facebook concluded its rebuttal by acknowledging the work that still remains to improve user safety.
“While we still have a long way to go, we’re proud of the progress we have made in fighting misinformation, removing bad content and preventing foreign actors from manipulating our platform,” reads an excerpt from the November 15th media release.
Source: Facebook, New York Times
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