单选题   Para. 1 For more than a year, Facebook has endured cascading crises—over Russian misinformation, data privacy and abusive content—that transformed the Silicon Valley icon into an embattled giant accused of corporate over-reach and negligence.
    Para. 2 ①Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, was publicly declaring it a 'crazy idea' that his company had played a role in deciding the American election. ②But security experts at the company already knew otherwise.
    Para. 3 ①They found signs that Russian hackers were poking around the Facebook accounts of people linked to American presidential campaigns. ②Months later, they saw Russian-controlled accounts sharing information from hacked Democratic emails with reporters. ③Facebook accumulated evidence of Russian activity for over a year before executives opted to share what they knew with the public—and even their own board of directors.
    Para. 4 As criticism grew over Facebook's belated admissions of Russian influence, the company launched a lobbying campaign—overseen by Sheryl Sandberg, the company's chief operating officer—to combat critics and shift anger toward rival tech firms.
    Para. 5 ①Facebook hired Senator Mark Warner's former chief of staff to lobby him; Ms. Sandberg personally called Senator Amy Klobuchar to complain about her criticism. ②The company also deployed a public relations firm to push negative stories about its political critics and cast blame on companies like Google.
    Para. 6 Those efforts included depicting the billionaire liberal donor George Soros as the force behind a broad anti-Facebook movement, and publishing stories praising Facebook and criticizing Google and Apple on a conservative news site.
    Para. 7 ①Facebook faced worldwide outrage in March after The Times, The Observer of London and The Guardian published a joint investigation into how user data had been appropriated by Cambridge Analytica to profile American voters. ②But inside Facebook, executives thought they could contain the damage. ③The company installed a new chief of American lobbying to help quell the bipartisan anger in Congress, and it quietly shelved an internal communications campaign, called 'We Get It,' meant to assure employees that the company was committed to getting back on track.
    Para. 8 ①Sensing Facebook's vulnerability, some rival tech firms in Silicon Valley sought to use the outcry to promote their own brands. ②After Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, quipped in an interview that his company did not traffic in personal data, Mr. Zuckerberg ordered his management team to use only Android phones. ③After all, he reasoned, the operating system had far more users than Apple's.
    Para. 9 Washington's senior Democrat, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, raised more money from Facebook employees than any other member of Congress and he was there when the company needed him.
    Para. 10 ①This past summer, as Facebook's troubles mounted, Mr. Schumer confronted Mr. Warner, who by then had emerged as Facebook's most insistent inquisitor in Congress. ②Back off, Mr. Schumer told Mr. Warner, and look for ways to work with Facebook, not vilify it. ③Lobbyists for Facebook—which also employs Mr. Schumer's daughter—were kept abreast of Mr. Schumer's efforts.