Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are quietly freaking out and pulling late nights behind the scenes

Facebook

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.

• CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg have not commented on the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
• The data leakage has now cost Facebook tens of billions of dollars in market value.
• Zuckerberg and Sandberg are aware of the problem and have been working late into the night on their response, according to Wired.
• "Mark, Sheryl and their teams are working around the clock to get all the facts and take the appropriate action moving forward," a Facebook representative tells Business Insider.

Facebook has been rocked since Friday's announcement that the social media giant was banning the Trump-linked British data company Cambridge Analytica, which had obtained as many as 50 million Facebook profiles by abusing Facebook's data-sharing features.

Two people who have not yet commented publicly on the matter are the two most important people at Facebook: CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.

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Although they are not in hiding - Zuckerberg has been active on Facebook - they haven't said anything on the matter that has plunged Facebook stock over 10% since last Friday.

However, the two Facebook leaders are very aware of the issue, and have been strategizing and arguing over the right response, Wired reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and their teams have been discussing the issue since the weekend, and working "late into the night."

They talked about topics like how to fix Facebook's internal systems, whether Zuckerberg should testify in front of Congress or Parliament, the possibility of a lawsuit against Cambridge Analytica, and most intriguingly, what to do about a former Cambridge Analytica founding employee who now works for Facebook.

But still they haven't said anything as of Wednesday. Facebook even had an unusual internal question-and-answer session about the scandal, but neither Mark Zuckerber nor Sheryl Sandberg were there - instead, the meeting was run by a Facebook lawyer.

"Mark, Sheryl and their teams are working around the clock to get all the facts and take the appropriate action moving forward, because they understand the seriousness of this issue," a Facebook representative said when asked about the internal meeting.

Zuckerberg and Sandberg's reluctance to comment on the issue is causing consternation among Facebook employees, according to a slew of reports, which quote current employees who wonder why they haven't heard from Zuckerberg, who owns the majority of Facebook stock and controls the company's board of directors.

"The prevailing sentiment is, why haven't we heard from Mark?" one employee told The Verge.

Zuckerberg's silence may be ending on Wednesday. Axios reports that Zuckerberg plans to speak on Wednesday about the story. His remarks will be focused on "rebuilding trust," according to the report.