But as of early afternoon Tuesday, neither Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg nor his high - profile chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, had made public comments
about the
mushrooming crisis, which now involves a reported Federal Trade Commission probe, demands by Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill for testimony by Zuckerberg, and the release of an undercover video by a British television station that appears to show the head of the
data analytics firm talking
about bribes and traps to sway elections.