Mark Zuckerberg asks employees 'not to apologise' for FB's policy loopholes; Here's why

While the Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg ran a full-page apology across several British and American newspapers for company Facebook’s "breach of trust" in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the tech CEO has now opted ‘no more apologies’ approach over recent umpteen accusations and lawsuits about the company’s policies. According to a WSJ report, the social media mogul has asked his employees “not to apologise” for Facebook’s policy loopholes as several American lawmakers in Washington called out the company over whistleblower Frances Haugen’s revelation about his firm’s inability to regulate disinformation, and increasing divide online, all the while discrediting the former employee. 

Facebook’s team in the District of Columbia has instead contacted the Republicans, claiming that the whistleblower Haugen is a Democratic activist who sought to boost US President Joe Biden’s ruling Democratic Party. She has united with the opposition to disparage the image of Meta, the report claimed. Meta that also operates Instagram and WhatsApp has also reportedly warned Democrats that their lawmakers would use Haugen’s testimony to question Facebook’s decision of restricting the posts and online content related to the Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse.

The 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, fatally shot two men and wounded another in Kenosha, Wisconsin during the Kenosha protests against the police brutality but claimed that he gunned down the protesters in self-defence. He was, although, cleared of the felony, homicide, and possession of reckless weapon charges in connection with the Rosenbaum shooting

An interesting shift in facebook's strategy

Facebook’s recent move is an interesting shift in the company's strategy, and the report suggests that it is the dangerous PR management approach wherein CEO Zuckerberg refuses to admit these shortcomings, far away from fixing it. While previously, Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, the company's chief operating officer, had promised to improve the company’s standards, they have now opted for a tougher stance. 

Facebook had garnered widespread backlash and criticism after a previously anonymous whistleblower identified as data scientist Francis Haugen later, accused Zuckerberg of hoarding profit over the public wellbeing. During an interview with investigative newsmagazine "60 Minutes,” Haugen said that founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg,  always preferred his company's interests and monetary gains over the social evil. 

"Facebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety," said Haugen, who worked at the popular search engine Google and Pinterest before she came on board with Facebook. She reportedly filed at least eight complaints with federal law enforcement releasing a trove of confidential data and research that showed how Facebook “exaggerates hate and misinformation". The 39-year-old urged the federal US government to investigate the firm and enact the regulations in order to oversee social media giant’s gruesome policies allegedly detrimental for societal wellbeing. 

"I don’t trust that they’re willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous,” Haugen said, accusing the company CEO Zuckerberg of working on the algorithms that are designed to favour hateful content and polarise the democracies. While Meta's new products were subjected to reputational assessments, as per WSJ’s report, CEO Zuckerberg restricted the internal access settings for research on subjects relating to mental health and radicalization for the employees. This action may have been prompted to avoid any further leaks about the company’s functioning.

Shortly afterward, Facebook changed the name of the parent firm to ‘Meta’. Sources told WSJ that Zuckerberg asked all his employees to communicate using "Metaverse" avatars to keep the identities a secret. "The implication is that Facebook should look toward the future and not get bogged down in the messy past," the report revealed, adding that the CEO encouraged employees not to apologise and ignore the negative press. "When our work is being mischaracterized, we’re not going to apologise. We’re going to defend our record," Facebook communicated to the employees in early October, after the release of the internal documents, according to the paper, as legal repercussions mounted. Since then at least four US congressional hearings have been held on issues raised by Haugen and a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general was formed to investigate the issue.