It’s not all that far fetched to say that Facebook has quite a year. The social media company received quite the barrage of criticism for how it handled user data and unsecured platforms. This month, the New York Times reported it gave Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and other companies “far greater” access to user data than what it previously disclosed. Four days before that, Facebook disclosed a photo API bug could have given third-party apps access to photos of 6.8 million users without permission. This was only the first part of December too.
Because of the never-ending list of Facebook issues and snafus, apologies have been flowing from the likes of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, as well as the company’s head of communication (which took place right before he left in June). Executives apologized to everybody, including users, during Congressional hearings, as well as the EU Parliament.
Facebook’s blunders even impacted advertisers. Amy Gesenhues has created a list of the top ten times Facebook owed advertisers an apology in 2018.