- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for the data scandal that has roiled the social media network this week.
- Zuckerberg said “I’m really sorry that this happened” in an interview with CNN, which aired hours after he and Facebook’s No. 2 exec, Sheryl Sandberg, issued their first statements about the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
- The matter has roiled Facebook this week, after it was revealed that the British data firm inappropriately vacuumed up information from some 50 million Facebook users.
- Both Zuckerberg and Sandberg acknowledged “mistakes” on the part of Facebook, but for some of their critics, the remarks fell short.
The scandal has contributed to a 10% drop in Facebook’s stock since last Friday.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said
“I’m really sorry that this happened,”
in his first interview on the massive Cambridge Analytica data scandal that has roiled the social-media network this week.
Zuckerberg made that admission on CNN Wednesday night, hours after he and COO Sheryl Sandberg issued their first public statements on the matter. Cambridge Analytica inappropriately used 50 million Facebook user profiles to target ads in support of its clients, including Donald Trump’s successful 2016 election campaign.
In the interview, Zuckerberg says that he regrets taking Cambridge Analytica at its word, when it signed a legal document in 2015 certifying that it had deleted the information from those profiles but it had not.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m used to when people legally certify that they are going to do something, that they do it. But I think this was clearly a mistake in retrospect,”
Zuckerberg said.
He likewise said that he will vouch for Congress on the issue, however he would like to send somebody with “the most learning” on any lines of addressing. Moreover, he says he’s available to directing tech, and is agreeable to enactment around straightforwardness in internet publicizing.
Cambridge Analytica is being investigated for the techniques it utilized amid the 2016 presidential race, after officials with the firm gloated about their capacity to secretly target voters, capture legislators, and dispatch publicity battles.
The range of those tasks was increased by associated stages like Facebook. Russian agents gained by this to a critical degree, sowing political dissension among likely voters in a far reaching push to interfere in the US decision. Zuckerberg has recognized this in fits and begins, after at first scoffing at the thought a year ago.
He communicated some waiting incredulity of the idea on Wednesday night:
“If you’d told me in 2004 when I was getting started with Facebook that a big part of my responsibility today would be to help protect the integrity of elections against interference by other governments, I wouldn’t have really believed that that was gonna be something that I would have to work on 14 years later,”
Zuckerberg said.
“But we’re here now, and we’re gonna make sure we’re going to do a good job at it,”
he added.
And while he says that “I’m sure someone’s trying” to influence the 2018 midterm elections, he’s sure that the company is better prepared to meet the challenge.
Watch portions of Zuckerberg’s interview below:
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the Cambridge Analytica scandal: “This was a major breach of trust, and I’m really sorry that this happened” https://t.co/hpduqQB2r0 pic.twitter.com/gIhL00FlMY
— CNN (@CNN) March 22, 2018
“We have a basic responsibility to protect people’s data and if we can’t do that then we don’t deserve to have the opportunity to serve people,” says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg https://t.co/kmMO3jnLxl pic.twitter.com/nqv0QxLXhg
— CNN (@CNN) March 22, 2018
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will proactively reach out and notify “anyone whose data might have been affected” by the massive Cambridge Analytica data breach. https://t.co/DojUEzPh5O pic.twitter.com/zbBOCpMDuR
— CNN (@CNN) March 22, 2018
.@LaurieSegallCNN: “Knowing what you know now, do you believe Facebook impacted the results of the 2016 election?”
Mark Zuckerberg: “Oh that’s — that is hard. You know, I think that it is — it’s really hard for me to have a full assessment of that.” https://t.co/m3F79UMHd8 pic.twitter.com/y41ON2LatL
— CNN (@CNN) March 22, 2018
“What’s clear is that in 2016, we were not as on top of a number of issues as we should have, whether it was Russian interference or fake news,” says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg https://t.co/TgTwNdg9Ly pic.twitter.com/PD71mIowyY
— CNN (@CNN) March 22, 2018
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he is “sure someone’s trying” to use Facebook to meddle with the US midterm elections. “There are going to be some new tactics that we need to make sure that we observe and get in front of” https://t.co/W2WMtTnBpw pic.twitter.com/ooMGj3TfXR
— CNN (@CNN) March 22, 2018
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he is “happy to” testify before Congress “if it’s the right thing to do” https://t.co/QLmFe43vp2 pic.twitter.com/0UH7WVxqW9
— CNN (@CNN) March 22, 2018
Original article by Bryan Logan