NEW YORK: With Facebook dealing with an alleged data breach crisis, the Chief Information Security Officer of the social network, Alex Stamos, is planning to leave the company by August, according to a report in The New York Times. Facebook is facing a backlash as a data analytics firm that worked with Donald Trump’s election team allegedly harvested millions of Facebook profiles of US voters to influence their choices at the ballot box.
The social network announced in mid-March its decision to suspend Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), along with its political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, for violating its policies and commitments, but refused to call the incident a “data breach”.
The impending exit of Stamos reflects heightened leadership tension at the top of the social network, The Times report said.
Citing versions of some current and former employees of the social network, the report said that much of the internal disagreement is rooted in how much Facebook should publicly share about how nation states abused Facebook’s services.
Stamos reportedly met with resistance by colleagues when he had advocated more disclosure around Russian interference of the platform and some restructuring to better address the issues.
In December 2017, Stamos’s responsibilities were reassigned to others, following which he expressed desire to leave the company. — AFP
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