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Here's a peek at how reporter Rob Price got inside the ultra secretive world of Mark Zuckerberg's family office in Hawaii

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BI's Facebook reporter Rob Price.
Rob Price

  • Business Insider is taking you behind the scenes of our best stories with our new series "The Inside Story." 
  • This week, BI deputy executive editor Olivia Oran spoke to BI correspondent Rob Price about his recent investigation into Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's secretive family office, which manages his day-to-day needs and sprawling properties. 
  • Price, who worked alongside senior reporter Becky Peterson on the story, uncovered a workplace in crisis over its handling of allegations of sexual harassment, racism, and transphobia. 
  • Read their story here.
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Business Insider correspondent Rob Price is known for his hard-hitting investigations into some of the tech industry's most secretive companies. His reporting into how Facebook obtained 1.5 million users' email data without their consent prompted an investigation by the New York Attorney General and a piece on Instagram's lax privacy practices caused the company to change its platform. 

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Alongside senior reporter Becky Peterson, the two spent more than three months on their most recent story: "A drunken, late-night assault allegation has roiled the secretive world of Mark Zuckerberg's private family office. Personal aides are speaking out about claims that household staff endured sexual harassment and racism from their colleagues."

Here, Price shares with Business Insider deputy executive editor Olivia Oran how he finds undercovered Silicon Valley stories to report on, his tactics for getting nervous sources to trust him, and what gets him excited about journalism. 

Olivia Oran: You've covered Facebook for a while now. How'd you get interested in reporting on this particular story involving Zuckerberg's family office? 

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Rob Price: Facebook is a fascinating company to cover because it touches billions of peoples' lives all around the world in innumerable ways, from blood donation efforts in India to its wild plans to launch satellites into orbit

In my reporting, I've been particularly drawn to some of the less-covered aspects of the organization. Everyone talks about its digital security, but there's less attention on its legions of workers protecting the company's physical security, for example. And last year, while there was a lot of focus on Facebook's approach to data privacy, I dug deep into how Instagram — which had largely escaped its parent company's scandals — was handling things.

My interest in Mark Zuckerberg's family office and his household staff grew out of that line of inquiry.

Oran: I can imagine that the people in Zuckerberg's world, particularly around his secretive family office, are pretty closed off. How did you get them to open up to you? 

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Price: You're right, it's an intensely secretive world, in which worker discretion on behalf of clients is paramount. In our conversations, we made clear that we weren't chasing gossip or scandal for the sake of it — but there were serious allegations floating around, and they deserved to be thoroughly investigated. If we learned things in the course of our reporting about the family office we didn't believe were in the public interest, we wouldn't include them in our stories

I'm honored that sources decided to trust us, and we had to make clear we would protect them — and also make clear we would respect the privacy of their colleagues, particularly those that were allegedly victims of misconduct. That's why throughout the story, we refer to several workers by pseudonyms only.

Oran: What was the hardest part of reporting out this piece? 

Price: We first learned about the assault allegation against Shawn Smith, Zuckerberg's key aide in Hawaii, last year, but we had trouble getting hold of the police report relating to the incident.

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We submitted a public records request for it, but the Kauai Police Department declined to release the document, citing an active investigation — even though it had taken place nearly two years ago, and Smith was never arrested or charged.

It was only after the statute of limitations for misdemeanor assault passed in December 2019, two years after the alleged assault, that we were able to obtain the document as part of a reporting trip to Hawaii, and it subsequently informed our reporting on the subject.

Oran: Thinking about Facebook more broadly, what are the big themes that you're going to be watching at the company this year? 

Price: The big story for Facebook in 2020 — barring unseen scandals — is going to be the US election. Right now, the company is an unenviable position, caught between two sides making conflicting demands around its policies and processes, particularly on the subjects of political advertising and content moderation. If it cedes to liberal demands and starts fact-checking political ads, it will be further demonized by the right, which has long made unproven claims the company is deliberately biased against conservatives. But if it does nothing and maintains the status quo, the American left will view that as the company surrendering to the right and welcoming a flood of misinformation.

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The ultimate outcome of the election could also present an identity crisis for the company and its workers: Silicon Valley is typically viewed as a hotbed of liberalism, but many on the left — notably Elizabeth Warren — are now openly calling for the breakup of big tech firms, an existential threat to Facebook.

Oran: What's been your most rewarding experience as a journalist? 

Price: To me, reporting is at its most important — and its most rewarding — when your work helps to affect real change. In 2019, my investigation into a buzzy marketing startup that was harvesting millions of Instagram users' data and tracking their locations prompted the company to shut down its operations, and for Instagram to change its platform and launch a large-scale internal review into the companies that it partners with. Or earlier that year, my reporting into how Facebook obtained 1.5 million users' email data without their consent prompted an investigation by the New York Attorney General

You can read Rob and Becky's story here.

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