Facebook’s
sudden fall from grace in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica dirty-tricks data
scandal is a lesson in how not to manage a crisis.
The
social networking giant’s failure to apologise quickly when the story broke and
explain to its 50+million ‘violated’ customers it had messed up is proving to
be more disastrous for the company than the data breach. CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s
deafening five-day silence spoke volumes. It sent a message that Facebook had
willingly allowed a controversial ‘behavioural change’ firm to harvest its
customer base, supporting political dirty tricks campaigns that helped win the
Trump Presidency and the Brexit vote.
CEO
Mark Zuckerberg’s long absence became a news story in itself and when he did
speak up, it was too little too late. Facebook’s customers, duped by a devious
app posing as a personality quiz, as well as advertisers, investors and
regulators wanted a heart-felt apology and assurances that this would never
happen again. What they heard instead was legalistic corporate-speak - a total
disconnect from the company that’s stated mission is “To make the world more
open and connected.”
So
how should Zuckerberg have handled the crisis? Very simply, he should have been
out there apologising, taking ownership of the problem and bravely facing the
music when the story broke. Customers, advertisers and investors wanted
to hear words of ‘remorse’ and reassurance. They wanted
Facebook’s leader to ‘lead’, not retreat.
What
next?
The
damage has been done. Facebook can’t win back the public trust and confidence
it had before the scandal broke. Customers have become sceptics. No-one trusts Facebook or
Zuckerberg anymore. Overnight, users have become cautious and protective about
their data and rightly so. Zuckerberg once said people who willingly hand over their
personal data are "dumb f----".
So
the fall-out has begun. The hashtag #deletefacebook is trending on Twitter and
the number of searches on variations of the term “delete Facebook” which
increased 423% in the days after the scandal broke, continue to rise. Stocks
are sliding with $60 billion wiped off Facebook’s market value in the past few
days as investors fear a fall-out of customers and advertisers from the social
network and tougher regulation. Worrying rumours that the mega corporation
listens to users' phone calls are in the social conversation. The Federal Trade
Commission is now investigating Facebook’s user-data practices and both the UK
and European parliaments are baying for Zuckerberg to give evidence… and so the
PR nightmare goes on.
