Facebook’s Vice President of Product Management was ‘Head of Integrity’ for less than 24 hours… after being called out on new title following post about Christchurch live-stream chaos
- Guardian tech journalist Alex Hern noticed the change and tweeted about it
- Guy Rosen’s name appeared at the top of the update with ‘Head of Integrity’
- Before, and less than a day later, Rosen’s title was VP for Product Management
Facebook’s vice president of Product Management was given a new title for less than a day after posting an update on the Christchurch massacre.
Guy Rosen’s name appeared at the top of the update about how Facebook was used to circulate the live video of the massacre, and what they were doing to combat it.
But the update appeared with a new title for Rosen – Head of Integrity – which was quickly changed back when called out by a journalist.
Guardian tech journalist Alex Hern noticed the change and tweeted about it whilst several other media outlets, including Venturebeat and Global News Canada, ran the story with Rosen’s new title.
A picture taken from Facebook showing the company’s VP of Product Management, Guy Rosen
The journalist tweeted: ‘Facebook exec Guy Rosen is usually referred to as ‘VP of Product Management. Yesterday, his statement on Christchurch came as ‘Head of Integrity.’
‘I asked whether he’d been promoted, and they silently edited the post back to ‘VP of Product Management’.’
Hern asked of Facebook in a follow-up tweet: ‘Why must they be like this’.
A tweet from a tech journalist from the Guardian, questioning Rosen’s change in title
Updated version of the Facebook release, showing Guy Rosen as VP for Product Management
A cached version of the update published by Facebook confirms the gaffe, while the current version does indeed list Rosen as his original title – VP of Product Management.
‘We recognize that the immediacy of Facebook Live brings unique challenges,’ said the statement, referring to the fact that the person responsible for killing 50 people at two mosques used the service to stream his attack on March 15.
During live videos Facebook only offers the option for viewers to report content that may show ‘suicide’, but there is no button to flag ‘murder’ to moderators.
Facebook said that even still, the video was viewed about 4,000 times in total before being removed and that they culled more than 1.2 million videos of the attack at upload within 24 hours.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in the wake of the attacks: ‘It cannot be a case of all profit, no responsibility,’ in terms of social media’s role in atrocities
Approximately 300,000 additional copies were removed after they were posted, the statement added.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in the wake of the attack: ‘We will look at the role that social media played and what steps we can take, including on the international stage and in unison with our partners.
‘They are the publisher, not just the postman. It cannot be a case of all profit, no responsibility,’ she added.