Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-04-20)

◼ TECHNOLOGY Bloomberg Businessweek April 20, 2020

21

● Afteryearsplayingdefense,Zuckerberguses
lessonsfrompastscandalstotakea stand

A Pandemic Made

For Facebook

For the past two years, Facebook Inc. and Chief
Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg were the pub-
lic face of the “techlash,” a feeling among some in
the general population and in government that tech
companies were too big and occasionally damag-
ing to society. Zuckerberg stayed on the defensive,
apologizing to Congress for Facebook’s leaking of
privatedataonmillionsofusersandvowingtodo
a betterjobofrootingoutmisinformationandpro-
tectingelectionsfromforeign meddling.
Then came Covid-19. And Facebook was sud-
denly no longer tripping over its mistakes—it was
on the offense, using lessons learned from past fail-
ures. After being heavily criticized for Russian inter-
ference in the last presidential campaign and the
Cambridge Analytica data scandal, Facebook moved
quickly to get its teams preparing for bad things that
could happen, instead of waiting for the media to
dig them up. They expected to find a challenge sim-
ilar to Russian election interference. Instead, they
face a worldwide public-health disaster.
The virus and its associated lockdowns have
made Facebook’s products  necessary societal
infrastructure for its 2.89 billion users trying to
communicate and learn how to protect themselves
while at home. The company news feed prompts
once used to assuage privacy concerns now broad-
cast health and safety information from the World
Health Organization and Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Product engineers have
quickly reorganized into new teams to better sup-
port services under more pressure amid record
usage, such as live video.
As a result, Zuckerberg has become one of the
most visible CEOs of the coronavirus outbreak,
giving him a chance to change the conversation
aboutFacebook.The35-year-oldco-founderhas
longsoughttoplaya biggerroleinsolvingthe
world’sproblems,promptinga headline-grabbing
national tour in 2017 that raised suspicions of
political ambitions.
WhileZuckerberghasoftencomeoffassuper-
cilious oraloof,suchas inlengthy congres-
sional hearings or an appearance at Georgetown
University this year to defend free speech, people

are tuning in to hear what he has to say. He’s used

Facebook to livestream interviews with California

Governor Gavin Newsom and Anthony Fauci,

head of the CDC, with his wife, Priscilla Chan—a

pediatricianandheadoftheChan-Zuckerberg

Initiative—athisside.

TheChan-ZuckerbergInitiative,thecouple’s

philanthropic investment organization, has given

Facebooka front-linelookattheunfoldingpan-

demic.Zuckerbergwasgettingearlywarnings

fromthehealthexpertshe’dhiredfortheinitiative,

including Joe Derisi, a professor of biochemistry

and biophysics at the University of California at San

Francisco, and Tom Frieden, a former CDC director.

InlateJanuary,basedontheiradvice,Zuckerberg

toldFacebook’ssenior leadersto preparefor

Covid- 19 tochangethewaytheydobusiness.“He

wasverycleareyedaboutwhatthisallmeant,well

aheadofwhatanybodywithinFacebook—andwhat

folksotherthantherealexpertepidemiologists—

thought,”saysNickClegg,vicepresidentforpublic

affairs.“Likemanyotherpeopleintheroom,I was

thinking,Is thisreal,is it reallygoingtobethatdra-

matic?Is societygoingtoslowdownthatabruptly?”

AttheendofFebruary,Zuckerbergreceivedan

emailfromFriedensayingthevirushadn’tbeen

contained,confirmingeveryone’sworst fears.

Zuckerbergcalledfora meetingwithseniorleader-

shiptostartputtingplansintoaction,thenwrotea

longmemoforthewholecompanyinearlyMarch.

Hedetailedhowthenovelcoronaviruswaslikelyto

affectallaspectsofoperations,fromsmalladver-

tisersthatwouldgooutofbusinesstothestrainon

Facebook’sinfrastructure,aswellashowthecom-

panyneededtoreorientitselfaroundsupporting

thevirusresponse.Employeesralliedaroundtheir

leader,withattendanceathisweeklystaffmeetings

atrecordlevels,accordingtothecompany.

Zuckerberghassometimesfacedcriticismfor

hisironcladcontrolofFacebook,thoughhe’s

backedbyhisboard,whichfeelstheco-founder

isbestplacedtomaketoughdecisions,espe-

ciallyinuncertaintimes.Covid-19maypresent

theclearestexampleofZuckerberg’sleadership

underpressuresinceherefusedtosellFacebook

toYahooInc.for$1billionin2006.Still,it will

takemorethana bravuraperformanceina cri-

sistoovercomethemistrustgeneratedbypast

behavior.Facebook’sabilitytodogoodincrisis

comesfromitsmassivesize—butgrowingthatbig

involvedmisstepsandblindspotsthatwillremain

afterapandemic.�SarahFrier

THE BOTTOM LINE After years as the face of the “techlash,”

Zuckerberg has been given an opportunity to change the

conversation about Facebook.

● Facebook users

worldwide, as of the

fourth quarter

2.89b