Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “the ultimate measure of where one stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where one stands at times of challenge and controversy” . This quote can be linked to Facebook as the company's strength will be judged by how it responded to the Analytica scandal. This essay will describe the positive and negative aspects of the Facebook Analytica scandal and outline the steps Facebook took to recover from the scandal. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Facebook's conceptualization as a leading player in the social media industry has placed it under public scrutiny since its inception in 2004 by its founder, Marco Zuckerberg. Although the organization has been involved in other scandals before, the data breach involving Cambridge Analytica is considered the largest scandal in its history affecting more than 87 million users. The data breach scandal was accentuated by the fact that data had been used by Cambridge Anaytica to influence the 2016 US election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Facebook has come under intense public scrutiny and, through its founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has moved quickly to recover from the scandal. From the outset, it is crucial to note that the first step Facebook took was to try to downplay the problem. . Even though the scandal reached its full extent in March 2018, Facebook had already become aware of the data breach in 2015. Interestingly, despite these claims, Mark Zuckerberg has publicly dismissed the idea that there could have been a data breach data in Facebook which is used by external entities to spread inaccurate information popularly referred to as fake news. From a general point of view, it can be noted that, after learning about the impending scandal, the CEO of Facebook was under the impression that the scandal would ultimately be resolved internally without exposing the organization's weaknesses. However, containing the scandal became impossible after Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie spoke out publicly about the Facebook data breach. After the information became public, Facebook began taking significant steps to recover from the scandal. His second commitment to the Cambridge Analytica matter was to quickly accept responsibility. After Christopher Wylie released the information, Mark Zuckerberg held a press conference in which he admitted Facebook's mistake and highlighted the incident as a "breach of trust." According to Fitzpatrick and Bronstein (2006), the concept of accountability is the cornerstone of public relations when the organization knows that the allegations made in public are true. Therefore, Facebook's admission of liability was a significant step towards recovery from the scandal as it created a platform on which the organization can move to the stage of rectifying reported errors. This step included engaging the public at a congressional hearing that was held on April 11, 2018. Mark Zuckerberg used every available platform to accept responsibility and offer an apology. In an effort to accentuate the level of goodwill on its part, Facebook took the step of notifying users whose data was affected by the breach. The organization created a system that would send a message or two to its users about the scandal. Over 97% of its 2.2 billion users have.
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