 |
Josh Edelson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
|
|
| Facebook pleads ignorance over its latest scandal |
| After an NYT article on Wednesday described how Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg ignored warning signs of looming crises and then tried to conceal them, the social network fought back: |
| • Ms. Sandberg wrote in a Facebook post that reports that she had stood in the way of fixing the platform’s problems were “just plain wrong.” She also said that she “did not know” that the company had hired Definers, a P.R. firm that tried to discredit Facebook protesters by linking them to the liberal billionaire George Soros. |
| • Mr. Zuckerberg defended the social network on a call with journalists. “The reality of running a company of more than 10,000 people is that you’re not going to know everything that’s going on,” he said, adding that Ms. Sandberg was “doing great work for the company.” |
| • Facebook’s board, which includes Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg, defended the two executives. “As a board, we did indeed push them to move faster,” it said in a statement. “But to suggest that they knew about Russian interference and either tried to ignore it or prevent investigations into what had happened is grossly unfair.” |
| But the company’s critics are pouncing. Several top advertisers took shots at Facebook in the wake of the NYT investigation. (Rishad Tobaccowala, Publicis’s chief growth officer, said that the social network had “absolutely no morals.”) And Axios reported that the former hedge fund executive David Magerman was the initial donor behind a high-profile campaign calling on regulators to break up the company. |
| An NYT Op-Ed argues that the only way to find out what Facebook really knew — and when — would be through hard-hitting congressional hearings. |
| More Facebook news: The company said it would create an independent oversight group to review content moderation appeals. And fewer computer science graduates want to work there. |
| ____________________________ |
| Today’s DealBook Briefing was written by Andrew Ross Sorkin in New York, and Michael J. de la Merced and Jamie Condliffe in London. |
| ____________________________ |
| Nobody is breathing easy over Brexit |
| Britain’s draft deal to leave the European Union ratcheted up tensions yesterday: Several cabinet officials resigned, and a serious threat to Prime Minister Theresa May’s leadership emerged. Today could be equally wrenching. |
| The pound began falling after Dominic Raab resigned as Brexit minister, and was down about 2 percent at the end of the day. As Peter Eavis of DealBook notes, a continued decline could prompt investors to dump British stocks and government bonds. |
| Businesses became increasingly worried that Mrs. May’s draft agreement — which may be Britain’s only shot at leaving the E.U. with a deal, and at offering corporations some much-needed certainty — would not make it through Parliament. Shares in British banks like the Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays tumbled, and some corporate leaders said they feared that a no-deal Brexit was more likely than ever. |
| The pound traded up slightly this morning to $1.28, suggesting that a measure of stability had returned to the markets. But with rumors of more cabinet resignations and a vote of no confidence for Mrs. May, that may change. |
| More Brexit news: E.U. negotiators can’t stomach the idea of reopening talks. |
| China is a climate power broker. How will it use its influence? |
| When President Trump announced that he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, he left the global environmental campaign without clear leadership. China seems to have assumed the role, but with U.N. climate talks set to take place in Poland next month, there are numerous questions about the direction the Chinese will take. |
| The FT points out that while China supports the Paris agreement, the nation has also invested heavily in coal plants. Depending on how it approaches the December talks, the world may find that its new climate leader pulls in an unwanted direction, according to the FT’s Leslie Hook and Lucy Hornby: |
| Worryingly for countries that used to rely on Washington to push for a strong climate agreement, Beijing’s influence could steer the Paris agreement toward a slower pace of climate action, with more flexible rules for developing countries. |
