Alex Stamos

Facebook Inc. FB, -0.54% Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos has taken a new job at Stanford, leaving the Menlo Park, Calif. tech giant behind, according to several reports. According to a tweet from Stamos, he will depart Facebook Aug. 17 and will begin a teaching and research role at Stanford University (he also included a link to his fall class).

Facebook  Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos is reportedly leaving after disagreements over how the social media network should handle the spread of disinformation. The news was first reported by The New York Times, and later independently reported by Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.

Hundreds of fake Facebook accounts, probably run from Russia, spent about $100,000 on ads aimed at stirring up divisive issues such as gun control and race relations during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the social network said on Sept. 6.

Yahoo Inc. last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers' incoming emails for specific information provided by U.S. intelligence officials, according to people familiar with the matter. 

Facebook has announced that it will notify users that have been targeted by an attacker suspected of spying on them. The company’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, explains that the warning is necessary because government-sponsored attacks are “more advanced and dangerous than others”.