| The social media giant announced this week it was shuttering its facial recognition program and deleting the faces of more than a billion users from its databases. The decision was in the works long before the current scandal brought on by a whistleblower, and it was championed internally by the company's artificial intelligence team and supported by policy professionals who believe that regulation of such controversial technologies is coming eventually anyway, said several people familiar with the company's thinking. The incoming chief technology officer argued for a different approach, including expanding facial recognition into the company's new hardware products. | 
