Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told Congress in written testimony Monday that the social media network did not do enough to prevent itself and its members' data being misused over the past few years, and he offered an apology to lawmakers.
His conciliatory tone in written testimony precedes two days of Congressional hearings, where Zuckerberg is set to answer questions about Facebook user data being improperly appropriated by a political consultancy and the role the network played in the U.S. 2016 election.
"It's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm..." he said in remarks released by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday. "That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy."
Zuckerberg was meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Monday, ahead of his scheduled appearance before two Congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Top of the agenda will be Facebook's admission that the personal information of up to 87 million users, mostly in the United States, may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
"We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake," his written testimony continued. "It was my mistake, and I'm sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here."
Facebook, which has 2.1 billion monthly active users worldwide, said on Sunday it plans to begin telling users whose data may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica on Monday. The company's data practices are under investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
(Published by CBC, April 09, 2018)