Facebook’s chief security officer Alex Stamos will leave the social media platform in August 2018, according to the New York Times.
In a Twitter post, Stamos said that he is still “fully engaged” with his work at Facebook, but his role has changed.
“I’m currently spending more time exploring emerging security risks and working on election security.”
A Facebook representative told MobileSyrup: “Alex Stamos continues to be the Chief Security Officer (CSO) at Facebook. He has held this position for nearly three years and leads our security efforts especially around emerging security risks. He is a valued member of the team and we are grateful for all he does each and every day.”
https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/975875310896914433
The Times originally reported that he butted heads with executives including COO Sheryl Sandberg over how Facebook should deal with the Russian influence campaigns that occurred on its platform during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
According to sources cited by the Times, Stamos pushed for investigations and disclosures, causing “consternation” among Facebook’s top-ranking executives.
The tipsters also told the Times that Stamos planned to leave in December 2017, but Facebook convinced him to stay to make the transition easier and to reduce negative press.
The news comes as Facebook wades through yet another press scandal with the Cambridge Analytica data leak.
The political data analytics firm reportedly harvested 50 million user’s Facebook data without sufficient authorization in 2014. A New York Times story also stated that Facebook has known about the issue since 2015.
Facebook issued a statement on March 19th, 2018 stating that it is pursuing forensic audits to investigate the Cambridge Analytica claims, though the platform reported that its auditors did not gain entrance to Cambridge Analytica’s London office while the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office was pursuing its own on-site investigation.
BBC 4 recently released undercover video of Cambridge Analytica’s CEO Alexander Nix boasting about using sex workers to blackmail political candidates, among other tactics.
Canada’s privacy commissioner stated yesterday that his office will contact Facebook to ascertain if Canadians were affected by the Cambridge Analytica breach.
Source: New York Times, Twitter
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
