Sheryl Sandberg: Facebook Is 'Open to Regulation'

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in a recent interview that the social media giant is “open to regulation” by the government.

Axios reports that Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg stated in a recent interview that the social media giant may be open to regulation in the future. Sandberg was interviewed by CNBC’s Julia Boorstin, the topic of the interview mainly pertained to Facebook’s latest user data scandal which involves the data of 50 million users allegedly accessed by data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica without the direct permission of those users. Facebook executives were extremely slow to respond to news of the data leak, something which Sandberg regrets, saying that if she “could live this week again,” she would have commented sooner.

Sandberg surprisingly stated that the company would be open to regulation, a point that CEO Mark Zuckerberg briefly touched on in an interview with CNN earlier this week. “Mark [Zuckerberg] has said, ‘It’s not a question of if regulation, it’s a question of what type,'” Sandberg said. “We’re open to regulation. We work with lawmakers all over the world.” Sandberg discussed the data scandal saying, “We know this is an issue of trust. We know this is a critical moment for our company, for the service we provide.” She continued to say, “We are going to do everything we can.”

When asked about the huge hit that the company took to their stock price following news of the scandal, Sandberg stated “That’s not how we look at it. We don’t look at these trade-offs like, oh it’s going to hurt our business in the long run and in the immediate term,” Sandberg said. “People’s trust is the most important thing we have, and that is how we make those decisions.”

Discussing the delay in comment from Facebook executives, Sandberg said, “Sometimes, and I would say certainly this past week, we speak too slowly.” She continued, “If I could live this past week again, I would definitely have had Mark and myself out speaking earlier, but we were trying to get to the bottom of this.” In an interview with CNN, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed regulation saying “I’m not sure we shouldn’t be regulated. There are things like ad transparency regulation that I would love to see.” Zuckerberg has since been asked to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Congress.