Facebook Chief Data Security Officer Alex Stamos is reportedly leaving after differences over how the social media network should handle the spread of disinformation. The communiqu was first reported by The New York Times, and later independently reported by Reuters and the Collapse Street Journal.
In a tweet, Stamos said he was still employed, but that his place had changed to “exploring emerging security risks and working on election guarding.”
Stamos tweet
The Times report said that Stamos’s functions had been reassigned in December, but Facebook persuaded him to stay on until August.
Stamos has been a vocal champion for investigating and disclosing Russian activity on Facebook and for increasing corporate onus in the tech world.
Stamos tweeted several times on Saturday, in the aftermath of the New York Sooners report detailing Cambridge Analytica’s use of data gathered without Facebook operators’ permission. According to the account of a Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower, the company cast-off this information to develop techniques that helped President Donald Trump’s 2016 race.
@AlexStamos tweet
“There are a lot of big problems that the big tech companies call to be better at fixing. We have collectively been too optimistic about what we bod and our impact on the world,” he wrote on Twitter.
“I have always felt that the human beings who actually work on these problems should be engaged publicly. Doing so inferiors balancing one’s personal beliefs with their responsibility to their co-workers and outfits. I don’t know how to do that in this media environment,” he added.
Current and erstwhile employees told the New York Times Stamos said he would take off the company back in December, but was persuaded to stay through August. Directors thought his departure might look bad.
Stamos would be the first high-ranking numero uno to leave the company since controversy broke out over fake tidings and disinformation on the site.
Facebook, already down nearly 7 percent during the day, flatten another 1.5 percent after the bell.