With Facebook still reeling from the Cambridge Analytica scandal that impacted upwards of 87 million users, Mark Zuckerberg is headed to D. C. this week to testify before Congress about a range of privacy issues.
With Facebook still reeling from the Cambridge Analytica scandal that impacted upwards of 87 million users, Mark Zuckerberg is headed to D. C. this week to testify before Congress about a range of privacy issues. With the social networking giant still in the midst of a public relations nightmare, Zuckerberg will be under a lot of pressure to answer some hard-hitting questions from lawmakers. In fact, Facebook went so far as to hire a team of consultants to ensure that Zuckerberg — who has historically been somewhat shy and awkward in interviews — appears more charming than robotic.
Ahead of Zuckerberg’s appearances, Congress today released Mark Zuckerberg’s prepared testimony. As you might expect, Zuckerberg’s remarks touch on a few issues and includes an admission that Facebook didn’t do enough to prevent third-party actors like Cambridge Analytica from abusing tools that were offered to developers with good intentions. What’s more, Zuckerberg takes full responsibility for not realizing how Facebook’s platform might be used for sinister purposes.
“But it’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well,” Zuckerberg said. “That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy. We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”
As to what Facebook is doing to make the platform safer going forward, Zuckerberg explains:
Zuckerberg’s full testimony can be read over here .
