Facebook Quietly Deletes Mark Zuckerberg’s Private Messages

Facebook secretly deleted Mark Zuckerberg‘s private messages from the social networking platform.

According to TechCrunch, multiple sources who had previously received private messages from CEO Mark Zuckerberg through the Facebook Messenger application can no longer find those messages. That said, it begs the question if the company is secretly deleting Zuckerberg’s private messages, a feature that is currently not available to other Facebook users.

TechCrunch explains Facebook Messenger users can only delete messages from their own inboxes and will still appear in the recipient’s thread. Facebook issued a comment on the deletion of some of Zuckerberg’s private messages by referencing the 2014 Sony email hack.

After Sony Pictures’ emails were hacked in 2014 we made a number of changes to protect our executives’ communications. These included limiting the retention period for Mark’s messages in Messenger. We did so in full compliance with our legal obligations to preserve messages.

That said, the company spokesperson did not reveal whose messages, in particular, had been deleted. Moreover, they did not identify which other Facebook executives have had their private messages removed from the application.

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Stock Photo: DEAUVILLE, FRANCE – MAY 26, 2011 : Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Press conference at the summit G8/G20 about new technologies – Deauville, France on May 26 2011 (Frederic Legrand – COMEO / Shutterstock.com)

This news comes after a Patient care data controversy. CNBC reported on Thursday that Facebook sent a physician on a secret mission to ask hospitals to anonymously share patient data. The company said that it stopped the project last month after the Cambridge Analyicta scandal went viral on March 16, 2017.

On April 4th, Bloomberg reported Facebook evaluate links and images as part of their content moderation practices.

On Friday, Sheryl Sandberg admitted that the Cambridge Analyicta data breach appeared on Facebook’s radar two and a half years ago, in December of 2015.

“We could’ve done this two and a half years ago,” Sandberg admitted. “We thought the data had been deleted and we should have checked. They gave us assurances and it wasn’t until other people told us it wasn’t true … We had legal assurances from them that they deleted it. What we didn’t do is the next step of an audit and we’re trying to do that now,” Sheryl Sandberg said during an interview on NBC’s TODAY show with Savannah Guthrie.

Ultimately, Facebook can not shy away from the criticism over the way the company manages their data, even as the company looks to shy away from controversy.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg will have to appear for two major hearings next week, who most likely think he did not handle the abuse of the social networking platform.

Even Apple’s CEO Tim Cook called out Facebook, saying he “Wouldn’t be in this situation,” referring to Facebook’s privacy scandal. Cook called for more privacy regulation following the controversy. Zuckerberg responded by calling the Apple CEO’s comments “extremely glib”.

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DEAUVILLE, FRANCE – MAY 26, 2011 : Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Press conference at the summit G8/G20 about new technologies – Deauville, France on May 26 2011 (Frederic Legrand – COMEO / Shutterstock.com)