Zuckerberg’s not liking it

BILLIONAIRE Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg faced a Capitol Hill grilling of nearly five hours as he repeatedly apologised for the social media platform’s privacy breaches.

Perched on a cushion to boost him in his chair, a contrite and tense Mr Zuckerberg, who rehearsed for the showdown with US politicians by using image consultants, admitted failings and said: “We need to step up more.”

He said “tens of thousands” of apps were being audited by Facebook in case they committed breaches similar to that which saw shadowy political firm Cambridge Analytica purchase and exploit the personal data of 87 million users.

“It’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm,” he said.

“It was my mistake and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”

While Mr Zuckerberg, 33, addressed a range of issues facing his firm, the hearing repeatedly returned to the central issue of privacy.

This was best illustrated by Democrat Senator Richard Durbin, who asked if Mr Zuckerberg was willing to reveal which Washington hotel he was staying in, or who he had messaged in the past week. “No. I would probably not choose to do that publicly here,” Mr Zuckerberg said.

Senator Durbin replied: “I think that may be what this is all about: your right to privacy. The limits of your right to privacy. And how much you give away in the name of ‘connecting people around the world’.”

Surrounded by his lawyers and his executives, Mr Zuckerberg admitted that letting Russia use the platform to try to influence the 2016 US election was one of his “greatest regrets”. He said he understood if data-breach victims – including more than 300,000 Australians – were angry.

“They did not want their information to be sold to Cambridge Analytica by a developer and that happened on our watch,” he said.

“I think we have a responsibility to protect everyone in our community from anyone in our ecosystem who is going to potentially harm them, and I think we haven’t done enough historically.”

Mr Zuckerberg also confirmed that Facebook, the most popular social media platform with 2 billion users, was considering implementing an advert-free paid version.

But he added: “There will always be a version of Facebook that is free.”

He will face more questions today.