On call with reporters just now, Mark Zuckerberg reiterates company line that seems to dispute the NYT story without actually contradicting anything in it. 
Zuckerberg says Facebook has decided it "shouldn't be making so many important decisions about free expression and safety on our own." So it's creating a new, independent appeals body.
Facebook is creating "a new independent body that people will be able to appeal to, that will have authority to determine whether content should stay up or come down." —Mark Zuckerberg, on a press call with reporters
Zuckerberg stumbles over Soros question. "The intention was not to attack an individual," he said, but to call attention to the fact that a group presenting itself as a spontaneous grassroots effort "was in fact funded by—err—uhh—was not in fact a spontaneous grassroots effort."
Most-repeated line by Zuckerberg so far is "I just read this yesterday in the New York Times." He's blaming the opposition research firm Facebook hired, Definers Public Affairs, for all the really ugly stuff, and claiming he didn't know about any of it.
Reporter (@dseetharaman): Have you actually fired anybody over the missteps that have been made over the last two years?
Zuckerberg reframes the question as being about "personnel changes," cites the company's hiring of Nick Clegg.
Zuckerberg reframes the question as being about "personnel changes," cites the company's hiring of Nick Clegg.
Shorter Facebook press call:
- We didn't know that a PR firm we hired was doing all this nasty stuff
- We won't tell you who at Facebook was responsible, or what we're doing about it
- Here's a flurry of long notes, reports, and announcements, please focus on those instead
- We didn't know that a PR firm we hired was doing all this nasty stuff
- We won't tell you who at Facebook was responsible, or what we're doing about it
- Here's a flurry of long notes, reports, and announcements, please focus on those instead
