Delay, deny and deflect: how Facebook's leaders went through the crisis

Three years ago, Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook in 2004 while attending Harvard, was celebrated for the extraordinary success of the company. Sandberg, a former Clinton administration executive and a veteran of Google, had become a feminist icon with the release of her empowering manifesto, "Lean In," in 2013.

Like other technology leaders, Zuckerberg and Sandberg see their company as a force for social good. The noble goals of Facebook have been put forward even during the deposit of titles: "Our mission is to make the world more open and more connected."

But as Facebook grew, hate speech, bullying and other toxic content on the platform grew. When researchers and activists in Myanmar, India, Germany and elsewhere warned that Facebook had become an instrument of government propaganda and ethnic cleansing, the company largely ignored them. Facebook was positioned as a platform and not as a publisher. Taking responsibility for what users were posting, or acting to censor, was expensive and complicated. Many Facebook leaders feared that such efforts would turn against them.

Then Donald J. Trump presented himself to the presidency. He described immigrants and Muslim refugees as a danger to the United States. In December 2015, he posted a statement on Facebook calling for a "total and complete closure" of Muslims entering the United States. Mr. Trump's call to arms – largely condemned by Democrats and some influential Republicans – has been shared more than 15,000 times on Facebook, illustrating the site's power to spread a racist sentiment.

Mr. Zuckerberg, who had helped found a non-profit organization dedicated to immigration reform, was outraged, said employees who had spoken to him or were aware of the conversation. He asked Sandberg and other leaders if Mr. Trump violated Facebook's terms of service.

The question was unusual. Zuckerberg has generally focused on broader technological issues; politics was Mrs. Sandberg's domain. In 2010, Sandberg, a Democrat, recruited a Clinton friend and friend, Marne Levine, as Facebook's chief representative in Washington. A year later, after the Republicans took control of the House, Sandberg set up another friend, a well-connected Republican: Joel Kaplan, who went to Harvard with Ms. Sandberg and then served in the administration of George W. Bush.

Some Facebook members saw Trump's 2015 attack on Muslims as an opportunity to finally take a stand against the hate speech that was taking place on his platform. But Sandberg, who was going back to work after her husband died several months ago, sent the case to Schrage and Monika Bickert, a former prosecutor who had been hired by Sandberg as head of overall policy. from the company. Ms. Sandberg also turned to the Washington office – especially Mr. Kaplan, told those who participated in the discussions or who were informed.