Masters Level Assignment _ Project Plan

Facebook Crisis

Facebook Crisis 11

Facebook Crisis Comment by Author: running head format is not quite on for APA. need to left-justify the running head and then have the page number all of the way to the right.

Team Lucky Charms

Anquatia Atabong, Christina Washek, James Painter & William C. Hardy

University of Maryland Global Campus

PRO 600 9050 Communicating, Problem Solving and

Leading in Professional Fields

Dr. Tim Hoyt

White Page Executive Summary

In 2016, the popular social media platform, Facebook was a part of a controversy centering around the presidential election. Russian groups made accounts on Facebook disseminating false information to influence voters, undermine the 2016 presidential election and as well as undercut democracy we have in the United States of America. Facebook poorly regulated and supervised their content on their platform. As a result of the interference, Facebook was accused of allowing the foreign entities to run aloof and failed to protect their platform from this spread of information and collection of user data. Comment by Author: check word choice here.

There were several key issues present that contributed to the scandal. Facebook's inability to regulate their content, failure to protect users data, poor leadership from top execs, and willingness to admit fault were reasons for their precipitous decline in their social media standing. Further, Facebook hired and fired PR firms to protect their image from further damage. Comment by Author: would spell out entire word “executives” for this type of paper.

Looking back at Facebook’s controversial scandal, we have several recommendations that may prove effective to prevent another crisis. Facebook should test and train all personnel so that they are in line with the company’s vision and ethics. Also, Facebook would benefit by having actions in place to protect their users’ data and privacy from outside exposure. In fact, Facebook implemented some of the strategies we suggested and as a result saw limited interference of outside groups and the spread of false information during the 2020 election.

In the end, the Facebook scandals negatively impacted the company’s image after 2016. However, since then Facebook has created campaigns to ensure that they have implemented the proper security measures and policies to regulate content on their platform so that a similar crisis of this magnitude will never happen again.

Introduction

Resolving an organizational crisis is hard enough to deal with. However, repairing an organization’s damaging image and restoring their credibility and integrity can be even more daunting. In this case, Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg and his company Facebook faced widespread scrutiny for their poor supervision and handling of the Russian interference during the 2016 election. Leading up to the election, Russian groups used approximately 400 fake Facebook accounts and purchased ads to influence voters toward different presidential candidates. Zuckerberg admitted Facebook was slow to understand the election interference and has since been under pressure to stop political groups from spreading false information (Munich, 2020).

Problem/Issue(s)

In examining the case study, the central issue was Facebook’s inability to regulate and supervise the spread of false information being disseminated on the website during the 2016 election. The spread of false information was distributed in combination with specific algorithms which placed users in a filtered bubble (Olon, 2016). To be specific, propaganda and false information was spread to users based on the Facebook algorithms of how people felt about certain issues and policies. For example, users who liked, or had certain views on these issues or policies would generally see posts containing false information based on how favorably they viewed these issues and topics. The posts provided information with false claims and had little credibility. Comment by Author: Since there wasn’t a specific case study provided for this project, just talk about the issue. Comment by Author: re-look at these two sentences. I’m not sure you quite communicate your point.

Before admitting that the company was slow to react to the Russian interference, Zuckerberg denied that the spread of fabricated news on Facebook had persuaded voters during the election. Although Zuckerberg encouraged the problem to be resolved, Facebook was hesitant to state how false information spread so quickly throughout their social media site. Facebook’s hesitation to give an explanation to the public seemed to validate their passiveness to address the situation and failed to show responsibility for upholding their values of integrity of social media content posted on their site. After backlash, Zuckerberg followed up with an apology written post stating how they would address the problem, including new tools to detect and classify false information. However, it was too late as Facebook's image took a hit because of a lack of transparency to the public. Comment by Author: might include the point that the company was trying to protect proprietary information about their algorithm.

Facebook faced more backlash in 2018 when nearly 50 million users' private information was accessed and exposed (Isaac & Frenkel, 2018). The data breached exacerbated the company’s image problem and continued to negatively impact the integrity of the company due to poor oversight of security and the expansion of misinformation which influenced elections. To this day, Facebook is still attempting to restore their credibility to show that they can be a trusted source when it comes to news and have a secure network. Comment by Author: not sure this is categorized properly. The data was sold by the company to a third party rather than being breached. Comment by Author: As above, I don’t think this is correctly described.

Analysis & Explanation of Problem/Issue(s)

Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, with over 2.5 billion users all over the globe. Therefore, the company and its management and leadership are faced with huge responsibilities to members of the public, especially in relation to the privacy and confidentiality of user data provided to the platform. Over the years, the company has faced many criticisms of how it has been handling issues. According to the case study, the greatest issues are the unauthorized access to user data such as telephone numbers and addresses and Russian political interference using the social media platform. The leadership plays a critical role in ensuring that such cases are unheard of within an organization. Comment by Author: not sure what is being referenced here.

The company's leadership, especially the executive positions, has been questioned on whether they knew of such interference. Zuckerberg and Sandberg pushed back the allegations and stated that they had no idea about the company's activities. They had no idea that the company had hired Definers as an analytics company to try to protect Facebook from its dirty politics. Through its leaders, the company also denied that they had any idea of the political interference caused by Russia through the platform. In relation to the Russian issues, Mark Zukerberg has repeatedly stated in news media outlets that he takes full responsibility as a company due to the slow reaction to the alleged corruption on its website.

The CEO claimed that the company was slow to identify Russia's interference and slow to act on it. The board of directors in the company argues that they tried to make the efforts to solve the issue quickly, and it would be unfair to state that the CEO was hiding the facts of the case from the public or that the company through its executives prevented any investigations. The company's scandals are often related to politics, with critics purporting that the executives lead to the support of one political group over the other.

The CEO's first decision was to end its contract with Definers Public Affairs as critics felt that Facebook had hired the PR Company to fend off critics. The decision by the leadership was a reaction to the critics the company faced. That would have a positive impact on the company as there would be less criticism over it retaliating against individuals against the power the company had over members of the public. Zuckerberg also decided that he would still be part of the company despite many people's expectations that he would step down due to the scandals that the company faced. The CEO is the chairman of the company’s board of directors and owns 60 percent of the company's voting shares. This has had a negative impact on the attitude that investors in the company have. Some have suggested that the CEO should at least relinquish the title of being the board chairman. Comment by Author: would be better to cite some sources throughout. This is a lot of info without knowing the original sources.

Leadership plays a critical role in dealing with such scandals. It is the work of the executive to understand every aspect of their company and everything that is happening within the company. Zuckerberg and Sandberg are the top-level executives in the company and should know about all the decisions that the company makes. Therefore, it was a shock to them, stating not to know about the scandals facing the company and the hiring of the PR firm that had been working for the company. As leaders, the two delegated their authority to others within the organization, who went ahead and hired the PR company. The result of such a decision from the two leaders was evident in the Definer scandal. The company was negatively affected by the negative press that it received. Comment by Author: reword here. maybe “claiming not to know”?

The company is also likely to face greater interference from the government. Legislature views the power that the company has over communications in the country to be considerably high for any one company. The security breaches that have affected the company have reduced the trust that members of the public have in the company. It has led to slow user growth, which affects the company's influence in the digital world. Through the case study, it is clear that the issues have had a negative impact on team dynamics. They have reduced the morale that the team has and led to scrutiny from the CEO of how the company has been slow to react when it is at war. The approach that top-level management has had on the company has led to turmoil atop the company. Several key executives leave the company and have created tension among other players of the executive team. In a general managerial decision and the pertinent scandals have influenced the perception the public has on the company and the general performance in the market. Comment by Author: or oversight? Comment by Author: as above.

Recommendations & Solutions

Facebook will have to implement better control of the data that is collected from its users. Teaching the employees and its leaders on the risk and controls that are to be situated within the company can be accomplished with teaching, testing and certifications of training. The training should be conducted as often as deemed appropriate from supervisors and leaders. Comment by Author: I’m curious about training as a recommendation. If we look at each problem: 1) A hands-off algorithm allowed foreign influence. This is much different than face-to-face interactions such as with Wells Fargo that might be corrected through training. This gets more at corporate responsibility. 2) The sale of user data also was not something that was being done because of poor training. Rather, this was common practice among tech companies; Facebook just had the biggest number of users it could sell off. Neither of these are problems that are corrected through mandatory training of all employees, particularly when the majority of employees are writing code and do not have direct influence. I would focus your analysis on the management and leaders who are shaping the use of social media.

Training can include but not limited to in house face to face teaching, online testing, and practical exercises. The testing will gather a series of results based on test scores, that place the persons testing in an area of strengths that would be required to work at certain positions within the company. This will help ensure that the right employees are in the right positions based on proper qualifications. This will also hold leaders accountable based on factual evidence that Facebook leadership or their CEO, does not take responsibility from the damage done involving data leaks.

If data from Facebook is going to be sold and used from people, places or organizations, profits then need to be distributed to the people from which they were gathered from. There is not a legal non-disclosure agreement that is present from Facebook that keeps them from being responsible for the content that is displayed, used or sold (Read & van der Schyff, 2020). Proving that if Facebook has the moral and ethical responsibility to fact check users profile post, and to take down or report murders, rapes, or suicide on Facebook. Then the responsibility of informing users of who is purchasing their data and what the data use is intended for needs to also be disclosed, paid or agreed on between Facebook and the user through legal terms. Comment by Author: work on sentence structure here.

Legal agreements will hold the right person at fault accountable. As recent events shown from congressional hearings involving Facebook with scandals such as Cambridge Analytica, have shown that little accountability can be produced or proven. When no one can take responsibility for how events like Cambridge Analytical happen and power that Facebook possesses with data and the lack of security with that power. Shows that proper training and security are lacking and need to be present.

Placing proper checks on leaders will also help ensure that adequate measures are being taken and followed by Facebook. As individuals take the proper cyber security, cyber threat, and data farming training and testing. Leaders will also have to take more in depth and advanced testing to ensure that leaders know where to look for mistakes within the company from its employees. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook has referred to his company as being professional multiple times in the past. As most professional companies try to ensure that the right trained leaders are in the right positions and have some form of transparency in the company. Then more focused training in areas that display weakness such as leadership, accountability, and information and data security are not recommended but demanded from the users. Comment by Author: sentence fragment. Also, similar to above, I don’t believe that cybersecurity is the training issue at Facebook.

Alternative View

Despite how negatively the Russians propaganda on Facebook affected the company, once the leaders finally took some form of responsibility and Mark Zuckenberg addressed the public, “I care deeply about the democratic process and protecting its integrity,” Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said during an appearance on Facebook Live, the company’s video service. He added that he did not want anyone “to use our tools to undermine democracy.” “That’s not what we stand for,” he said. (Shane and Isaac, 2017) it gave the company an opportunity to turn a bad situation into a good one which in turn brought some growth to the company. As a response to the scandal and under growing pressure from Congress and the public to reveal more about the spread of covert Russian propaganda on Facebook, the company said that it was turning over more than 3,000 Russia-linked ads to congressional committees investigating the Kremlin’s influence operation during the 2016 presidential campaign (Shane and Isaac, 2017). As they say, every disappointment is a blessing and in this case, this propaganda only helped facebook to further build the security on the platform as well as come up with new and firmer rules and regulations in regards to creating ads on the platform. Not only that, but this also shed the light on how effective and resourceful Facebook Ads could be for businesses. Now for users, this is possible good news because in current times, Facebook’s security has definitely improved and with technology fast improving, it feels good to know that information of the users are being protected much better. Comment by Author: check APA format. Typically “&” Comment by Author: inconsistent capitalization.

Compare and Contrast

Looking at the outcome of the scandal and having to compare and contrast between the alternative view and the conclusion, it is not quite obvious that the scandal did more harm than good to the company. Initially, the company denied any knowledge of the Russians running ads in regards to the 2016 election. But as soon as facebook’s admission on Sept. 6 that Russian agents covertly bought ads on the site during last year’s campaign has brought intense scrutiny on the social network platform (Shane and Isaac, 2017). But in every situation there always is a bright side and in this case, the propaganda inadvertently showed the power of running ads on the platform which of course to businesses this is a plus and would bring a lot more traffic to the company. Comment by Author: inconsistent capitalization. Comment by Author: don’t abbreviate months in a paper like this. Comment by Author: as above, “&”

Conclusion

In summary, data was misused and collected from Facebook who put its users and rights of the American people at risk. Facebook allowed American and European politics to be compromised from outside interference. This was accomplished with poor leadership and leadership supervision, lack of accountability of data from users, and security of that data.

Proper testing, training, and credentialing is to ensure that employees of Facebook are qualified to handle the information that they have access to. This has become evident and needs to be addressed, dealt with, and corrected immediately. To ensure the safety of not only American Democracy, the safety of the people and their rights, but the freedom and rights of other countries also.

Quarterly, semiannual, and annual training to include training and testing when needed will be put in place at multiple levels at different times to ensure there is accountability of employees and leaders. They will help ensure secure and safeguarding information and data from users and the measures to protect its users are being implemented. This is completed with legal documents and agreements.

References

Confessore, N. (2018, April 4). Cambridge analytic a and facebook: The scandal and the fallout so far (published 2018). https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-scandal-fallout.html Comment by Author: still capitalize proper nouns in article titles

CNET. https://www.cnet.com/news/definers-says-it-wasnt-hired-by-facebook-for-opposition-research/

Frenkel, S., & Singer, N. (2018, March 28). Facebook introduces central page for privacy and security settings (published 2018). https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/technology/facebook-privacy-security-settings.html

FRPT Software snapshot. (May 17 2016). Facebook faces questions from the US Senate committee over news selection. FRPT-Software Snapshot. https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=574cd2bb-3048-4d6a-bc23-86e7719652e2%40sessionmgr4008

Isaac, Mike, and Sheera Frenkel. “Facebook Security Breach Exposes Accounts of 50 Million Users.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Sept. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/technology/facebook-hack-data-breach.html. Comment by Author: check APA format for both article title and author names.

Mihalcik, C. (2018, November 16). Definers says it wasn't hired by Facebook for opposition research.

Miller, P., F., Vandome, F., A., McBrewster, & John. (n.d.). Michael j. Williams.

SHANE SCOTT, and MIKE ISAAC. “Facebook to Turn Over Russian-Linked Ads to Congress.” The New York Times, 21 Sept. 2017. Comment by Author: not APA format.

Solon, Olivia. “2016: The Year Facebook Became the Bad Guy.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 Dec. 2016, www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/12/facebook-2016-problems-fake-news-censorship.

Read, K., & van der Schyff, K. (2020). Modelling the intended use of facebook privacy settings. SA Journal of Information Management, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/sajim.v22i1.1238

Sengupta, Kim. “Mark Zuckerberg Admits Facebook Was 'Slow to Understand' Election Interference.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 15 Feb. 2020, www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-russian-interference-election-online-regulation-munich-conference-a9337646.html.

York, Dustin. “How Facebook's Crisis Response Missed the Mark.” PR Daily, 13 Dec. 2018, www.prdaily.com/how-facebooks-crisis-response-missed-the-mark/.