Zuckerberg had apologized many times already, to users and the public, but this was the first time in his career that he had gone before Congress.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told a Senate panel Tuesday that the giant social media company is in “an arms race” with Russia and other foreign adversaries who are seeking to exploit the platform to influence U. S. elections.
Zuckerberg said Facebook is getting better at using Artificial Intelligence to identify fake Facebook accounts that may be trying to interfere in elections and spread misinformation. Russian companies with ties to the Kremlin used fake accounts to try to sow division among U. S. voters in the 2016 election, Facebook has acknowledged.
“I have more confidence that we’re going to get this right,” Zuckerberg said in response to a question from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. He said Facebook was able to identify and remove fake accounts that were trying to interfere in recent elections in France, Germany and in Alabama’s special U. S. Senate election in December.
However, as Facebook gets better at identifying and taking down the fake foreign accounts, groups in Russia and other countries are getting better at trying to fool Facebook, Zuckerberg said.
“So this is an arms race,” he said.
The 33-year-old CEO also acknowledged that he’s “made a lot of mistakes in running the company” and is working to restore people’s faith in Facebook after recent revelations that the personal data of up to 87 million users was breached.
Zuckerberg made the comments in response to tough questioning from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S. D., who charged that Facebook has a poor record of protecting its users’ privacy.
“After more than a decade of promises to do better, why should we trust Facebook on privacy?” Thune asked.
Zuckerberg said the company is learning to be more proactive to make sure that its platform is used for good and not usurped by bad actors.
“At the end of the day, this is going to be something where people will measure us on our success (in protecting their privacy),” he said. “People will see real differences.”
Zuckerberg’s appearance before Congress on Tuesday was his first ever. He sought to apologize for high-profile privacy breaches at Facebook and convince doubtful lawmakers that he can fix the problem without government intervention.
Zuckerberg is trying to restore public confidence after recent revelations that data from up to 87 million Facebook users was shared with Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm used by the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. The information was shared without users’ knowledge.
“The industry needs to work with Congress to determine if and how we need to strengthen privacy standards to ensure transparency for billions of consumers,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. “We can’t undo the damage that’s been done, but we can work together in setting new rules of the road for our data.”
Zuckerberg faced hours of questioning Tuesday before a joint hearing of 44 senators who make up the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. He will return Wednesday morning to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Zuckerberg traded in his usual gray T-shirt and jeans for a suit to appear before the Senate committees and faced a swarm of news photographers, who surrounded the witness table as Zuckerberg took his seat. He reportedly hired consultants to coach him on how to answer lawmakers’ questions.
Protesters angry about Facebook’s handling of their personal data set up about 100 life-size cutouts of Zuckerberg outside the Capitol building. The T-shirts on the cardboard Zuckerbergs said “fix fakebook.” A protester in a bunny suit held a sign reading “#DeleteFacebook.”
The Cambridge Analytica scandal comes after last year’s news that a Russian company with ties to the Kremlin bought ads and placed false news stories on Facebook in an effort to sow dissension among U. S. voters. Zuckerberg initially scoffed at the idea that Russia had exploited the social media platform, but later apologized after discovering that Russian companies spent $100,000 on 3,000 ads before, during and after the 2016 election.
In his opening statement on Tuesday, Zuckerberg apologized again.
“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake,” Zuckerberg said. “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in Senate leadership, said apologies are not enough.
“Facebook and other social media platforms need to come clean with the American people,” Cornyn said in a speech on the Senate floor in advance of Tuesday’s hearing. “An apology, while necessary and welcome, is not enough. These companies must back up their words with actions that better safeguard the American consumer.”
Cornyn said that Congress should consider passing new data privacy laws that give consumers more control over their personal information and require companies to disclose “in plain English” what data they collect.
“Perhaps we should treat social media platforms as information fiduciaries and impose legal obligations on them, as we do with lawyers and doctors who are privy to some of our most personal private information,” Cornyn said.
The Republican-led Congress is generally opposed to increased government regulation of businesses, and Democrats like Silicon Valley’s liberal-leanings. However, the high-profile revelations of Russian meddling and privacy breaches at Facebook is increasing pressure on lawmakers to act.
As he tries to fend off restrictive regulations, Zuckerberg last week came out in favor of the Honest Ads Act, a bipartisan bill by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Mark Warner, D-Va., and John McCain, R-Ariz., that would require social media companies to publicly disclose who is paying for political ads. Newspapers and broadcast stations already must follow such rules, and Zuckerberg said Facebook has voluntarily adopted them. Twitter announced Tuesday that it would support the bill too.
Zuckerberg said last week that advertisers who want to run political or issue ads on Facebook must have their identity and location verified from now on.
