Zuckerberg: Facebook in ‘arms race’ with Russia
chief Mark Zuckerberg accepted personal responsibility Tuesday for the leak of data on tens of millions of its users, while warning of an “arms race” against Russian disinformation during a high-stakes hearing with US lawmakers.
In his first formal congressional appearance, the Facebook founder and chief executive spoke of a constant struggle to guard against Russian manipulation of the Facebook platform to influence elections in the US and elsewhere.
“There are people in Russia whose job it is to try to exploit our systems and other internet systems and other systems as well,” he said.
“So this is an arms race. They’re going to keep getting better and we need to invest in getting better at this too.”
Zuckerberg has previously acknowledged the social network failed to do enough to prevent the spread of disinformation during the 2016 US presidential race.
The Senate hearing, ahead of another appearance in the House on Wednesday, featured several tense and some friendly exchanges on Facebook’s security, hate speech and other topics.
Of the hundreds of questions he faced, none appeared to flummox him more than Senator Dick Durbin’s pointed query about where he slept the previous evening. “Would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?” Durbin asked.
Zuckerberg paused for a full eight seconds, chuckled, grimaced and ultimately demurred. “Um, uh, no,” he said.
And “if you’ve messaged anybody this week, would you share with us the names of the people you’ve messaged?” Durbin asked. Again, a similar unwillingness to answer.
Zuckerberg also revealed that Facebook is cooperating with the US special prosecutor investigating Russian interference in the 2016 vote. “Our work with the special counsel is confidential. I want to make sure in an open session I don’t reveal something that’s confidential,” he said.
WASHINGTON:Facebook