Zuckerberg gets sent fiery ultimatum by journalists that exposed Facebook scandal
It took months of undercover and investigative reporting by The Guardian, Channel 4 News, and the New York Times to blow the lid on Cambridge Analytica's role in "hijacking the profiles" of 50 million Facebook users during the U.S. election.
After laying low for days, Mark Zuckerberg finally mustered up the power of speech and gave interviews to CNN, the New York Times, Recode, and WIRED. Notable absences from this list, however, are the two British media outlets—The Guardian and Channel 4 News—behind the explosive news that reverberated across the world over the past week.
But, Channel 4 News' lead anchor has just issued Zuck with an open letter formally requesting that he face the team responsible for the undercover investigation during a broadcast interview.
Jon Snow, journalist and lead anchor at Channel 4 News, penned a letter asking Facebook's CEO to come on to discuss the investigation.
Bosses were filmed talking about using bribes, ex-spies, fake IDs and sex workers. And most crucially they appeared to base their deep data analytics on Facebook data harvested from some 50 million profiles. Data which your company was aware had been misappropriated and used for motives now seen as unorthodox, if not illegal. Our undercover investigation has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran 'all' of President Trump's digital campaign in the U.S. Election and may have broken U.S. election law.
Snow wrote that Channel 4 News approached Facebook days before broadcasting the undercover footage, but that social network "at the time refused to accept any responsibility."
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"It took our team months of detailed investigation in association with the New York Times and the Observer to reveal the dirty tricks being employed by Cambridge Analytica to undermine democratic elections," wrote Snow. "But the undercover films were original and exclusive reporting by Channel 4 News that is having reverberations across the political world both sides of the Atlantic."
Snow then formally requested that Zuckerberg appear in a broadcast interview on Channel 4 News.
"Given the massive impact was a result of Channel 4 News' journalism we request that you give us a broadcast interview, where we would give you space to respond in full and at length," wrote Snow.
Your move, Zuck.
Topics Facebook
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
