Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-04-20)

(Antfer) #1

◼ 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

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