‘Sorry for not doing enough’, claims Mark in testimony to US Congress
WASHINGTON DC: Mark Zuckerberg has apologised to the US Congress and taken personal responsibility over the Cambridge Analytica scandal for "not doing enough" to protect Facebook's 87 million users' private data from being misused and manipulated.
In a testimony released on Monday on the eve of his first congressional appearance, Zuckerberg accepted responsibility for the social network's failure to protect private data of its users and prevent manipulation of the platform.
"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," Zuckerberg said in his written testimony released by a House of Representatives panel.
"I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here." "It's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech," Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg, 33, who is facing the worst crisis of business, will testify before senators later on Tuesday and a House panel on Wednesday amid a firestorm over the hijacking of data on millions of Facebook users by the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
In prepared remarks released by a congressional panel, Zuckerberg admitted he was too idealistic and failed to grasp how the platform, used by two billion people, could be abused and manipulated.
On Monday, he met Senator Bill Nelson and other lawmakers.
"I just met one-on-one with Zuckerberg and in no uncertain terms reminded him that Facebook has a responsibility to its users to protect our personal data. Facebook failed us," Nelson said.
"Not only did they fail to safeguard the personal infor- mation of millions of users, they concealed it from us and this is not the first time the company mishandled user information. Only now are they coming clean and informing those who have had their information compromised and telling us they are going to make things right," he said.
Last week, Zuckerberg admitted making a "huge mistake" as personal data of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, a figure higher than the previous estimate of 50 million. Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook in 2004, once again admitted the lapses and asked for another chance to lead the company.
Embroiled in a massive data breach following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook had said data on about 87 million people mostly in the US - may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. BEIJING: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma has said that it was normal for the world's two largest economies to have problems with trade but tackling them with a trade war is just like treating a flu with chemotherapy.
In an apparent criticism of US President Donald Trump's moves to slap tariffs on Chinese goods to pressure Beijing to reduce $375 billion trade deficit in the bilateral trade, he said "You are not solving the problem of the cold, you are destroying the whole body, the whole system".
Trump threatened to launch a trade war if China fails to address the mounting trade deficit problem by opening its markets to US goods and investments.
China hit back by announcing tariffs on a host of US goods, including Soya beans and automobiles.
Speaking at a dinner with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde during the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference on Monday, Ma said that trade was about mutual respect and nobody can stop globalisation.
"It's normal for the world's two biggest economies to have problems with trade, but tackling them with a trade war is just like treating a flu with chemotherapy," he said.
"Trade is about rules and negotiations. If trade stops, war starts," the state-run Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.
He dismissed the Us-china trade deficit as a problem, citing economic growth and a low jobless rate in the United States as well as huge profit made by the American firms in the bilateral trade.
"Today as a businessman, I don't feel that trade deficit is a problem," he said.
Lagarde also warned of the risk of temptation for inward policies, protectionism and closing off to the outside world.
She suggested reducing trade barriers in the service industry where there is "a big, big upside" in promoting openness.
The IMF managing director also cautioned challenges to the global economy, including corporate debt and demographic change, saying that "the sun is shining, but we have to look at the cloud arising."
Globalisation has not been inclusive enough in the past decades, but there are ways to fix it, Ma noted. GENEVA: China has filed a World Trade Organisation complaint challenging US President Donald Trump's tariff hike on imported steel and aluminum, the trade body said on Tuesday.
The tariff spat is one element of a wide-ranging trade dispute between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping's government.
Trump also has threatened to increase duties on $50 billion of Chinese goods in a separate conflict over technology policy.
China has requested 60 days of consultations with the United States on the steel and aluminum dispute, according to the WTO. If that fails, the next step could be for Beijing to request a ruling from a panel of trade experts. Beijing says Trump's decision to impose additional duties of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent aluminum violate international trade rules.