Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have taken out full-page ads in several American and British newspapers apologising for the data scandal currently engulfing the headlines, and promising to do better in future.
Facebook took out full page ads in the NYT, WSJ, WashPost, and 6 UK papers today https://t.co/kMA822kTpU pic.twitter.com/CUEYwyWuTT
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 25, 2018
The simple ad, which takes the form of an open letter from Zuckerberg himself, appeared in The Observer, The Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Mirror, Sunday Express and Sunday Telegraph in the UK. In the US, the ads appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.
It’s an interesting ad, because Zuckerberg has been reluctant to actually apologise for the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed – shock horror – that Facebook had at some point allowed app developers to mine a staggering volume of personal data from social media users and their friends with very little oversight. In his initial post addressing the scandal he danced around apologising, and his appearance on CNN was couched in subtle justifications. But they’re clearly feeling the heat now – this one is an apology.
“This was a breach of trust, and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time,” Zuckerberg writes. “We’re now taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Will this be enough? Almost certainly not! But privacy activists can be reasonably assured they’ve got Facebook’s vast PR machine on the back foot.
