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Washington : Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, April 9, 2018, to meet with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.AP/PTI Photo(AP4_10_2018_000010B)[/caption]
Washington, April 10 (PTI): Mark Zuckerberg has apologised to the US Congress and taken personal responsibility over the Cambridge Analytica scandal for “not doing enough” to protect Facebook’s 87 million users’ private data from being misused and manipulated.
In a testimony released yesterday on the eve of his first congressional appearance, Zuckerberg accepted responsibility for the social network’s failure to protect private data of its users and prevent manipulation of the platform.
In prepared remarks released by a congressional panel, Zuckerberg admitted he was too idealistic and failed to grasp how the platform, used by two billion people, could be abused and manipulated.
Yesterday, he met Senator Bill Nelson and other lawmakers.
“Not only did they fail to safeguard the personal information of millions of users, they concealed it from us and this is not the first time the company mishandled user information. Only now are they coming clean and informing those who have had their information compromised and telling us they are going to make things right,” he said.
Last week, Zuckerberg admitted making a “huge mistake” as personal data of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, a figure higher than the previous estimate of 50 million.
Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook in 2004, once again admitted the lapses and asked for another chance to lead the company. Nelson said he has asked the Congressional leadership to to haul Cambridge Analytica in to answer questions at a separate hearing.
In his written remarks, Zuckerberg said it’s not enough to just connect people.
“We have to make sure those connections are positive. It’s not enough to just give people a voice, we have to make sure people aren’t using it to hurt people or spread misinformation. It’s not enough to give people control of their information, we have to make sure developers they’ve given it to are protecting it too,” he said.
“Across the board, we have a responsibility to not just build tools, but to make sure those tools are used for good. It will take some time to work through all of the changes we need to make, but I’m committed to getting it right,” the Facebook CEO said.
Zuckerberg said his top priority has always been his social mission of connecting people, building community and bringing the world closer together. “Advertisers and developers will never take priority over that as long as I’m running Facebook,” he said.
Yesterday, Facebook also began notifying the 87 million people whose data may have been harvested by Cambridge Analytica by posting a notification that they would see when they logged into the social network, The New York Times reported.
In addition, all Facebook users will see a new feature highlighting which apps they use and which information they have shared with those apps.
The White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the Trump administration is looking forward to his testimony.
