The Observer’s investigations into Facebook in 2018 exposed a toxic culture. But still the business thrived. That might be about to change
A whistleblower standing before Congress. A global scandal involving Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg missing in action and a series of lesser executives spinning wildly on US television networks. So far, so 2018. Because last week, we had 2018: the remake. A week that started for Facebook with a six-hour global outage and ended with one of its most trenchant critics, the American-Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, being awarded a Nobel prize. And in the middle of it, a whistleblower captured the attention of America.
“How is your PTSD?” I texted Chris Wylie, Cambridge Analytica’s former director of elections. Because three years ago, he was the whistleblower in the spotlight in the Observer’s investigations into Facebook.
