"If I was [Mark Zuckerberg], I wouldn't want to be asked 'while your company was being accused of aiding and abetting teenage suicide why was your only public pronouncement a post about surfing?'"

████: "heads up, team - mark read the Ryan Mac NYT story, specifically the reference to how he posted a video this summer about riding an "electric surfboard". mark is eager to post the following: 'Look, it's one thing for journalists to make false claims about my work, but it's crossing a line to say I'm riding an electric surfboard when it's clearly a hydrofoil and I'm pumping that thing with my legs.'" Nick Clegg: "Am I missing something here? On the day a [PP] rep is pulled apart by US senators on whether we care enough about children on our services, MZ is going to post about... surfboards? Maybe I've lost my humor about this whole thing, but I really think this would seem to any casual observer to be pretty tone deaf given the gravity of the things we're being accused of." Nick Clegg: "the IG/teens story is huge, is cutting through, and will lead to countless testimonies in the weeks/months ahead. If I was him, I wouldn't want to be asked 'while your company was being accused of aiding and abetting teenage suicide why was your only public pronouncement a post about surfing?'" ████: "OK - message sent (and Ted clip) - will let you know what he comes back with" ████: "His response: 'I'm still going to post and attach that screenshot I sent you'" Nick Clegg: "Fair enough -- I guess if it's consistent with stuff he's been doing every day I might be overreacting. I just worry that he and SS are under estimating how much this IG/kids thing will continue to hit us" Nick Clegg: "TBH this isn't so much a daily comms coverage issue, it's more that the WSJ/IG story has dramatically consolidated a wider narrative (that we're bad for kids) which had been brewing for some time. It now makes regulation - first in the UK, EU and then elsewhere - certain, and in my view makes launching IG Kids nigh impossible. I've told MZ and SS this already."