Case Study: Facebook's Crisis Management During Cambridge Analytica

This case study examines Facebook's crisis management approach in response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which involved the unethical harvesting of user data for advertising purposes. The crisis was triggered by an ex-employee's exposure of Cambridge Analytica's activities, leading to public outrage and calls for greater data privacy. Facebook responded by issuing public apologies, sending messages to affected users, and promising to implement changes to prevent future data breaches. Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress, acknowledging his failure to protect user data. Facebook also highlighted its compliance with GDPR laws and emphasized its commitment to improving data protection measures. The analysis suggests that Facebook's strategy, which included public apologies, privacy updates, and compliance with regulations, was successful in mitigating the crisis and restoring user trust. The case study also touches upon the image restoration theory and how it was utilized in the Facebook crisis.

1Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA IN A CRISIS
Social Media in a Crisis
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Social Media in a Crisis
Introduction
The process through which an individual or an organization deals with an emergency is
critical as it determines how well the organization will cope in the business environment.
Anything that threatens to harm the reputation of an organization or individual has to be dealt
with using the best mechanism to avert the risk of worsening of an already worsened situation.
The employees, the customers, the different suppliers, and the general public are likely to feel the
effects of the crisis if proper crisis mitigation measures are not used to manage the crisis
presented. Social media plays a vital role in the management of a crisis, based on the fact that
social media has the potential of worsening a situation or ultimately leading to a positive solution
(Meyers & Holusha 2018).
The organization that faced a crisis: Facebook and the Cambridge analytics scandal
Facebook is one of the most used social media sites globally, with a substantial number
of the population using the services that it offers to interact in various settings. The privacy of
individuals using the platform is held as one of the significant issues associated with the
platform. Despite the fact that many individuals trust Facebook with their data, Facebook failed
to ensure the data was stored sagely, this was evident from the scandal between Facebook and
Cambridge Analytica. It was revealed that Cambridge Analytica had facilitated an enormous
scandal. Cambridge Analytica was responsible for harvesting information that was privately held
by individuals on Facebook as a social media platform. The collection of this information was
devoid of the individuals’ consent. The data collected was used for advertising purposes, which
was unethical since there was no prior consent issued by the individuals in question.

The scandal came to light on March when an ex-Cambridge Analytica employee broke
the news to the world and exposed what had happened. The information related to the activities
of Cambridge Analytica was presented through the Observer, a social media and printing press
agency. The title of the document associated with the exposure of information was The Great
British Brexit Robbery. The article that was written spread immensely to many quarters around
the world. The scandal in itself was significant in that it instigated the necessity for a public
discussion on the standards of ethics associated with social media companies, the various
political organizations, and the politicians. People were able to see the importance and
significance of storing information safe from prying eyes.
The process through which information of many individuals was acquired was unique.
The data was obtained when Cambridge University had hired a developer to make an app with
the name “this is your digital life”. The purpose of the app was only to collect information that
was provided voluntarily by the participants of the study. However, instead of receiving just the
information that was linked to informed consent, the application in question gained access to the
private information of individuals using Facebook. The form created stole the private data of
individuals instead of only picking up a limited amount of data.
Access to private data related to individuals affected over fifty million users. However,
Facebook confirmed later on that Cambridge Analytica had gained access to the information of
an estimate eighty seven million people who used the platform. Over seventy point six million of
the individuals who were affected by the case came from the United States in particular with
California having the most significant number of people affected by the crisis. However,
Cambridge stated that the disaster only faced thirty million Facebook user profiles. Besides the

fact of this argument, Facebook noted that the data breach was associated with eighty-seven
million profiles.
Analysis of the Crisis Management approach used by Facebook to deal with the
Cambridge Analytica Scandal.
Based on the fact that Facebook is an online company, the best approach to deal with the
numerous complaints that were raised due to the Cambridge Analytica issue was through the use
of social media. Facebook, as a company had to find ways of appeasing the anger that was
evident from its users. The rise of the hashtag delete facebook from Twitter, was an even worse
blow to Facebook as a company. Many individuals were displeased by the activities that came
about as a result of the failure of Facebook to integrate and bring about change (Cadwallader &
Graham 2018 pp 6-7).
To mitigate the rising anger from individuals and institutions based on the activities
performed by Cambridge Analytica, Facebook sent messages to all the individuals who were
believed to have faced the effects of the breach either directly or indirectly. In its letter to the
public, Facebook argued that the information collected was made up of data from public profiles
such as page likes, dates of birthdays, the current cities in which individuals were in, and
different types of news feeds. Cambridge Analytica collected the data was very detailed to create
an aspect of a psychographic profile of the various subjects of the data collected. Additionally,
the data that was collected contained information on the different locations of individuals (Isaak
& Hanna 2018 pp 56-59).
Mark Zuckerberg argued that the Cambridge Analytica scandal was an issue of breach of
trust and a point of the data breach. Mark Zuckerberg explained that the individuals who

consented to the form poised by Cambridge Analytica, in essence, allowed to give away their
information. However, he promised to make changes on Facebook to prevent future breaches
from occurring. Additionally, there was a use of newspapers in airing out the apology by
Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg gave a very well detailed excuse to publications regarding the crisis
that had erupted as a result of the failure poised by Cambridge Analytica. During his testimony
to the Congress within the United States, Mark Zuckerberg argued that it was his mistake and
failure on his part and his inability not to seal the lope holes that presented themselves within
Facebook.
The rate at which Facebook was apologizing for its mistakes with data protection was
nothing short of exemplary. Facebook moved forward to apologize for its errors to the general
public based on what it did. As part of the apology by Facebook, was the burning of the IRA.
Facebook moved forward to generate a video promising that it would do better as a company
and would avoid making the same mistakes over and over again. The purpose of this approach
was to lure people back to the platform and to ensure that their trust of the platform was
maintained over its timeframe. Additionally, Facebook complied with the GDPR laws that came
into effect. Conforming to the privacy laws meant that Facebook was ready to change as a
company for the better.
Why I think the strategy was successful
I think the plan was successful. Having the company apologize for what it had done
wrong through the use of videos and messages on Facebook significantly increased the trust that
people had on it as a company. By increasing the confidence that people had on the company, it
was easier to reduce the anger and rage that the different individuals and other companies had

against it as a company. Increasing trust was paramount to the success of the company.
Generation of privacy updates on Facebook was also active as it reassured individuals that the
progress was in a positive direction.
By taking the step to apologize, the company shows that its reputation is clean and thus
should be left untouched. I believe the method used by the company worked since very few
individuals left the company and the profits were not significantly affected.
In essence, the image restoration theory was employed in the case of helping the
company survive in the crisis that presented itself. The image restoration theory has many facets
within it. The critical role of the image restoration theory is to ensure that an organization's
reputation is not damaged if it is attacked by outside forces or institutions. Image restoration
theory in itself can be applied in dealing with various crises that present themselves in
organizations or institutions in question Bi et al. 2015 pp 55-58).
In terms of communication during the crisis, Facebook was able to effectively
communicate and give well-outlined responses explaining what transpired on Facebook as a
company. Protecting the image of Facebook, both locally and internationally, was an activity
Facebook was ready to handle. The communication by Facebook was goal oriented, based on the
fact that Facebook wanted to ensure it articulated its concerns effectively at the time. Image
restoration theory was well utilized.

References
Bi, C., Zhang, Q., Bao, R., and Wang, H., 2015, January. SAR image restoration and change
detection based on game theory. In Proceedings of 2015 International Conference on
Intelligent Computing and Internet of Things (pp. 55-58).
Cadwallader, C., and Graham, E., 2018. The Cambridge analytic files. The Guardian, 21, pp.6-7.
Isaak, J., and Hanna, M.J., 2018. User Data Privacy: Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and
Privacy Protection. Computer, 51(8), pp.56-59.
Meyers, G.C., and Holusha, J., 2018. Managing crisis: A positive approach. Routledge.