As Facebook Struggles, Rivals’ Leaders Stay (Mostly) Mum Photo Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has suggested that new regulation protecting personal data might be in order. Credit Jim Young/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The recent tribulations of Facebook, which has lurched from crisis to crisis over the past year, most recently over the handling of user’s personal data, has pushed a few of the industry’s most prominent names to speak out against the company.
Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce.com, has compared the deleterious effects of social media to those of tobacco and alcohol, and has called for more regulation of those tech companies. Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has also suggested new regulation protecting personal data might be in order for businesses like Facebook.
“I think that this certain situation is so dire and has become so large that probably some well-crafted regulation is necessary,” Mr. Cook said recently at an event in Chin..