Facebook sounds spooked as it warns '30+ journalists' have accessed 'thousands of pages of leaked documents’

On Monday afternoon, the Twitter account Facebook Newsroom warned that "30+ journalists are finishing up a coordinated series of articles based on thousands of pages of leaked documents."

@fbnewsroom elaborated, saying, "We hear that to get the docs, outlets had to agree to the conditions and a schedule laid down by the PR team that worked on earlier leaked docs…. A curated selection out of millions of documents at Facebook can in no way be used to draw fair conclusions about us. Internally, we share work in progress and debate options. Not every suggestion stands up to the scrutiny we must apply to decisions affecting so many people."

John Pinette, vice president of corporate communications at Facebook, is quoted as saying:

Facebook was recently caught up in yet another controversy when whistleblower and former employee Frances Haugen (who was a data scientist for the Silicon Valley social media giant) alleged that the company encourages divisive, misleading articles to be published via its platform because it drives online traffic and is great for profits.

A reporter for The Guardian noted: