Facebook published a report on Wednesday about the content that was most popular among Americans last quarter. This was the first time that such a report had been published. According to The New York Times however, Facebook was working on a comparable report for the first quarter 2021 but decided not to share it because it could have negatively reflected on the company.
The New York Times obtained a copy the report. It stated that the headline of the most-viewed link for the first quarter promoted COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy. This has been a topic on social media. The headline was "A healthy doctor died just two weeks after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination; CDC is investigating why." The article was published in The South Florida Sun Sentinel, and republished by The Chicago Tribune.
It was feared by executives that it might be a problem of public relations
According to internal emails, Facebook executives were working on this report. However, Alex Schultz (Facebook's CMO and Vice President of Analytics), debated whether it would create a problem in public relations. The New York Times reported that they ultimately decided to not publish it.
Although we had considered making the report public sooner, we realized the importance of the attention it would draw. We also knew that there were system fixes we wanted to make. Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesperson, stated in a statement. Stone clarified Schultz's position on whether Facebook should release the report and stated that Schultz was in favor of it being released.
Facebook has had a busy week. Facebook published a report on the most popular posts and had to deal with an amended antitrust complaint by the Federal Trade Commission against the company.
