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Facebook is a company in a hurry.

Since the world learned about the latest customer data controversy at Facebook, the social media network has unleashed a swarm of changes. But it’s unclear whether Facebook’s own reckoning will be enough to satisfy regulators and lawmakers.

“We’ve reached a tipping point with Facebook and privacy,” said Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public interest advocacy group. “What’s most interesting at this moment are the number of forces — political, economic and social — that are converging. And I think the practical consequences is that something big will change.”

With more than 2 billion customers, Facebook has been in the hot seat in recent weeks over how an outside researcher gave the data of 50 million users to the political research firm Cambridge Analytica.

What if anything Cambridge Analytica has done with the data is unclear — the company claims it deleted it. But the situation has shone a spotlight on how much personal data is available on Facebook and how it is handled.

Pulling advertising

Sonos, a consumer electronics firm, Pep Boys, an auto parts and service retailer, Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox web browser, all stopped advertising on Facebook in response to the controversy.

“We would like to see a bit more transparency to the consumer and a bit more choice to the consumer,” said Denelle Dixon, chief operating officer at Mozilla.

Her message to Facebook: “When you start taking this a bit more seriously and you start focusing and making changes, we’ll go back.”

In a Facebook post and an appearance on CNN, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for the controversy and vowed to do more to protect user data. “This was a major breach of trust, and I’m really sorry that this happened,” he said.

The company also placed ads in Britain and the U.S. apologizing for a “breach of trust.”

A bevy of self-imposed changes

As state and federal regulators opened investigations and several congressional committees called on Zuckerberg to testify, Facebook has been busy rolling out changes.

The company made it easier for users to change privacy settings and has given them a quick way to download all the data that Facebook has on them. It has also cut off major data brokers.

Facebook may know soon whether its efforts will be enough.

Regulation or self-government?

Silicon Valley firms have long held that self-regulation, rather than government-imposed rules and regulations, would best allow for innovation. But the company also faces a bevy of state, federal and international regulators, which all may act against the firm.

In the U.S., Facebook’s chief concern is the Federal Trade Commission, which confirmed last month that it had opened an investigation into the company’s practices.

A key question will be if Facebook violated a 2011 consent decree it has with the consumer protection agency to obtain users’ permissions for everything it does with users’ data. Each violation is supposed to come with a $40,000 fine, which some analysts have speculated could cost Facebook billions.

In addition to the FTC, several state attorneys general have opened up an investigation into Facebook.

Beyond regulators, lawmakers in Washington and in state houses around the country are discussing what can be done to better protect social media customers. Zuckerberg is expected to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee next week.

Meanwhile, the company faces possible investigations in Britain and Canada.

Outside scrutiny

It is not just Facebook that deserves more scrutiny but all of the “advertising-powered web,” said Gennie Gebhart, a researcher with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital civil liberties organization.

“While Facebook is in the spotlight right now for very good reason, this is not just a Facebook problem,” Gebhart said. “We have a surveillance based business model that powers much of the web that cannot continue to coexist with privacy rights.”

She calls for independent audits done by a “party who is not accountable to Facebook but accountable to users.”

Rotenberg of EPIC said governments around the world shouldn’t leave it to U.S. and European regulators and lawmakers to regulate social media and user privacy.

“Coming up with new solutions that provide for the benefits of technology but at the same time address the real risks is a very good undertaking,” he said. “I think you’ll see throughout Asia, South America, the African continent robust debate about Facebook and other social media.”
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Red paint was splashed across the sign outside President Donald Trump’s golf club near his Florida estate.

Images posted online by The Palm Beach Post show a worker cleaning red paint Sunday morning from the stone sign at the entrance to the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.

Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Therese Barbera said the U.S. Secret Service was investigating.

Secret Service spokesman Joseph Casey referred questions to the sheriff’s office.

Images posted online by ABC News early Sunday showed large splotches of red paint obscuring some of the letters on the polished stone surface.

The golf club is less than 8 kilometers (5 miles) from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump attended Easter services at a nearby Episcopal church.
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Red paint was splashed across the sign outside President Donald Trump’s golf club near his Florida estate.

Images posted online by The Palm Beach Post show a worker cleaning red paint Sunday morning from the stone sign at the entrance to the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.

Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Therese Barbera said the U.S. Secret Service was investigating.

Secret Service spokesman Joseph Casey referred questions to the sheriff’s office.

Images posted online by ABC News early Sunday showed large splotches of red paint obscuring some of the letters on the polished stone surface.

The golf club is less than 8 kilometers (5 miles) from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump attended Easter services at a nearby Episcopal church.
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U.S. President Donald Trump called for tougher immigration laws Sunday, vowing that there would be no deal for DACA recipients.

“Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release,” Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday morning.

“Getting more dangerous. “Caravans” coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!”

“These big flows of people are all trying to take advantage of DACA. They want in on the act!” he said in a follow-up tweet.

Commentary on the Fox news channel earlier Sunday had used a headline referring to “caravans” of illegal immigrants to the U.S.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, was enacted under the Obama administration and had allowed children brought illegally to the United States to remain here and legally study and work.

The Trump administration ended the program in September, but gave Congress six months to come up with a permanent plan for the program recipients.

Despite Democrats’ efforts, the recent spending $1.3 trillion spending bill, signed by Trump last week, made no mention of protections for these so-called Dreamers. Democrats had called on Republican leaders to bring to a vote on the House floor a range of proposals to fix DACA. Meanwhile, federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to keep in place certain parts of DACA while legal challenges make their way through the court system.

Trump had initially said that he would agree on protections for DACA recipients if Congress approved funding for a proposed wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

In another tweet Sunday morning, Trump blamed Mexico for “doing very little, if not NOTHING” to stop the flow of migrants into the United States, threatening to “stop” the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico are supposed to meet in the United States next month for the eighth round of talks about NAFTA, although Washington has not announced dates yet.

 
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U.S. President Donald Trump called for tougher immigration laws Sunday, vowing that there would be no deal for DACA recipients.

“Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release,” Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday morning.

“Getting more dangerous. “Caravans” coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!”

“These big flows of people are all trying to take advantage of DACA. They want in on the act!” he said in a follow-up tweet.

Commentary on the Fox news channel earlier Sunday had used a headline referring to “caravans” of illegal immigrants to the U.S.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, was enacted under the Obama administration and had allowed children brought illegally to the United States to remain here and legally study and work.

The Trump administration ended the program in September, but gave Congress six months to come up with a permanent plan for the program recipients.

Despite Democrats’ efforts, the recent spending $1.3 trillion spending bill, signed by Trump last week, made no mention of protections for these so-called Dreamers. Democrats had called on Republican leaders to bring to a vote on the House floor a range of proposals to fix DACA. Meanwhile, federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to keep in place certain parts of DACA while legal challenges make their way through the court system.

Trump had initially said that he would agree on protections for DACA recipients if Congress approved funding for a proposed wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

In another tweet Sunday morning, Trump blamed Mexico for “doing very little, if not NOTHING” to stop the flow of migrants into the United States, threatening to “stop” the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico are supposed to meet in the United States next month for the eighth round of talks about NAFTA, although Washington has not announced dates yet.

 
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A man raised in a strict, religious home talks about what it was like to reconnect with his siblings years after their dad kicked him out of the home for being gay.
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There are fewer than 2,000 wild pandas in the world. However, as VOA’s David Byrd reports, a new documentary opening in IMAX theaters in the U.S. April 6 tells how scientists are working to introduce captive-bred panda cubs into the wild.
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The fallout continues for Facebook over how it handles user data and privacy. U.S. and European lawmakers are calling for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify, and regulators have opened investigations. Michelle Quinn reports on how the social media giant is facing a tipping point when it comes to dealing with user privacy.
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You may have heard the term “think tank,” which usually refers to a policy or research institute where scholars provide insight and advice on political, social or economic issues. Such institutions have been criticized in the past for their outsized influence on U.S. policy formulation. But there’s new research showing that, compared to previous administrations, the Trump White House is far less dependent on so-called think tanks. VOA Nadeem Yaqub reports.
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In early January, Roy Jones was making $14 an hour, $5 above Nebraska’s minimum wage as a representative dealing with customers on social media for Marriott International Group, the international hotelier.

For Jones, a 49-year-old Omaha resident, it was a dream job despite the bot-generated tweets that flowed unceasingly onto what he described as the company’s Tweetdeck-like interface January 9. Sometimes there were “more than 3,000 tweets in front of me, I’m just processing them,” Jones told VOA Mandarin earlier this week.

On what Jones called a hectic shift, there was a tweet from Friends of Tibet, a pro-Tibetan independence organization, congratulating Marriott for recognizing Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan as countries.

The company, which has more than 300 hotels in China, had named the three in a survey sent to customers that asked in which country they lived and gave options including Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

A Marriott social media account “liked” the Friends’ tweet, setting off an international incident that exemplifies the challenges Western companies such as Apple, Mercedes, Delta and Zara face as they do business with China.

Now, more than two months later, Jones told VOA Mandarin he is still not sure how or what he did or even if he was the employee who actually responded to that tweet.

WATCH: Florida Senator Marco Rubio on China, Tibet and American Companies

He was, however, the employee the hotel company fired almost immediately, and since January, his case has attracted the attention of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee and who, as chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, spoke out in February on companies bowing to Beijing.

“Every week, it seems another major international company is publicly, and in some cases, shamelessly apologizing to the P.R.C. for some sort of ‘misstep’ related to Tibet … and otherwise sensitive issues,” Rubio said.

On March 25, although not mentioning Jones by name but calling out Marriott, Rubio tweeted: “This is the long arm of China. They can get an “American” company to fire an American worker in America.”

Last week at a Washington event, former U.S. Representative Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia who retired from Congress in 2015, took aim at the hotelier, saying, “There is cultural genocide taking place in Tibet. … I personally will never stay at a Marriott hotel unless Mr. Jones gets his job back.”

WATCH: Former Republican Congressman Frank Wolf Calls Out Marriott

On Friday, Marriott International Group did not respond to emails and phone calls from VOA asking for comment on the Jones case.

In January, soon after the “like” was registered on Twitter, Craig Smith, president of Marriott Asia Pacific Region, said in a statement quoted in the Wall Street Journal: “We made some mistakes in China earlier this year, which shows that some employees have poor understanding or insufficient attention to China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity issues. These incidents are wrong and in no way represent the position of our company.”

Placing blame

What happened to Jones floored him. 

“My job is to help customers,” Jones told VOA earlier in this week. “Now that something went wrong, they want to push the blame on me.”

He’s not sure why. 

“My job isn’t to decide whether Tibet is a country,” he told his hometown newspaper.

Within 24 hours of the January 9 “like” going out, Chinese social media exploded even though Twitter is officially banned in China.

China’s netizens objected because, according to Beijing, Tibet is part of China. Supporters of Tibetan independence contend China occupies the area illegally.

Hong Kong, a British colony that reverted to Chinese control in 1997, retains its own government even though it is a special administrative region of China.

And Beijing considers Taiwan, a self-governing island, a wayward province and seeks the island’s reunification with China.

In that one survey, Marriott had touched on two of the so-called “Three Ts” — Tibet, Taiwan and Tiananmen Square, the site of June 1989 pro-democracy protests that ended with the deaths of hundreds of people — that are particularly sensitive topics in China.

On January 11, Marriott apologized to China’s government for referring to Tibet and Taiwan as countries.

That was when Jones learned that Marriott was suspending him. As he walked to his car after his meeting with the human resources department, Jones said his cellphone alerted him to a new story about Marriott.

That’s how he learned he was fired — a report he recalls as being in the China Daily, the state-run media — said that “termination proceedings are in process.”

His official termination letter stated January 14 as his last day with Marriott. It did not give a reason for his dismissal, Jones said.

The letter included a number to call about benefits and said any of his personal belongings at the office would be sent to his home. The box arrived the day before the letter, Jones said.

‘Surreal experience’

“It’s an absolute surreal experience. I feel like I’m in some kind of spy novel,” he told VOA.

Jones continues to be puzzled by the incident. He recalls that in school he learned “that people fought wars to keep the communist narrative at bay.”

Now, he admits he’s much more educated about China than he was before he was fired and feels that Beijing is “making a big push” to take its “narrative global.”

“There’s a bunch of stuff that China’s doing to the United States, and I don’t think that everybody’s putting the pieces together,” he told VOA.

“Somebody has to stand up and say something because obviously [what happened to me] this isn’t a right thing,” Jones said. “This is a wrong thing.”

“It’s just my idea,” he said with a sigh. “I’m just a guy who got fired. I used to make $14 an hour. What do I know?”
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