Facebook to Hold Emergency Meeting with Employees over User Data Scandal

Facebook has reportedly scheduled an open meeting with all employees on Tuesday to allow them to ask questions about the most recent user data scandal.

The Verge reports that according to an internal calendar invitation obtained by the site, Facebook has scheduled an open meeting with all employees to discuss the recent user data scandal linked to data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica. The meeting is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. PT and will be led by the company’s Deputy General Counsel Paul Grewal. It’s expected that Grewal will explain the background of the user data leak which allegedly saw the information of 50 million people used by Cambridge Analytica during their 2016 election advertising campaign. Grewal is also expected to take questions from employees via a polling feature on Facebook’s internal event page.

Facebook executives have reportedly been discussing the issues surrounding the most recent data leak and Cambridge Analytica but Tuesday’s meeting will be the first time that employees have been given the chance to question executives about the issue on a company-wide scale. The meeting is also being live-streamed around the world to remote employees as part of “FYI Live,” a project organized by Facebook’s internal communications team which features live discussions with a number of Facebook executives.

Despite the open nature of the meeting, it’s only scheduled to last for approximately 30 minutes. One employee told the Verge that the meeting felt like a “stopgap measure” simply aimed at buying the company some time until the weekly all-hands meeting that takes place on Friday, which is expected to feature Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. The Facebook CEO has faced criticism from employees and many others for failing to comment on the Cambridge Analytica situation with one employee saying “The prevailing sentiment is, why haven’t we heard from Mark?”