Zuckerberg Tries To Save Face By Rolling Out Unsend Feature

Facebook continues to face backlash after its Cambridge Analytica scandal and while it has made attempts to rectify the situation by apologizing through printed ads in important newspapers and revealing disturbing details to appear as transparent as possible, the team hasn’t been able to quell the public’s discontent. In fact, new reports added fire to the flames; reported originally by online tech news publisher TechCrunch, Facebook seems to be deleting messages sent by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives from their recipient’s inboxes.

This “unsend” feature is not available to users. Only after hawk-eyed users noticed the disappearing messages and started spreading the word did Facebook admit to its actions. A few hours after the news of disappearing messages reached media outlets, Facebook announced that the “unsend” feature was actually a feature they were considering rolling out to their customers. TechCrunch speculates that it might have been a move to paint Zuckerberg as a beta tester for the feature.

Although making an announcement about the feature, the Facebook team is unsure how the feature will function when it rolls out. While Zuckerberg and other executives can fully unsend or retract their messages, users might just have an “expiration timer” which allows you to select which messages will disappear after the timer runs out. This feature is already partially available in Secret Conversations mode. There, you can delete messages from your device, but the recipient will retain a copy.

Until the company decides what it wants to do with its “unsend” feature, it will stop unsending and retracting Zuckerberg’s and other executives’ emails.