Zuckerberg promises to revamp FB, says his own data has been misused

Stressing that there is an online propaganda “arms race” with Russia and it was important to make sure no one interferes in any more elections including in India, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that his own personal data was “improperly shared”.

Appearing before the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday—his second testimony before the US Congress in less than 24 hours—Zuckerberg told the lawmakers that his own personal data was part of 87 million users’ that was “improperly shared” with British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica.

“We don’t sell the data. We use the data that people put into the system in order to make them more relevant. I believe people own their content,” he told the House panel. Earlier, during the first fivehour marathon session at US Congress late on Tuesday, the Facebook CEO conveyed his concerns about the upcoming elections globally.

“The most important thing I care about right now is making sure no one interferes in the various 2018 elec- tions around the world,” he told a 44-Senator panel.

“As long as there are people sitting in Russia whose job it is to try and interfere with elections around the world, this is going to be an ongoing conflict,” the 33-year-old billionaire said as he prepared to testify again, this time before a House panel.

Zuckerberg has earlier said Facebook will ensure that its platform is not misused to influence elections in India and elsewhere.

In his opening remarks at US Congress, he said, “Facebook is an idealistic and optimistic company. For most of our existence, we focused on all of the good that connecting people can do.

“But it’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used as harm as well.

“That goes for fake news, for interference in elections and we didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility and that was a big mistake and it was my mistake and I’m sorry,” the Facebook CEO said. With 44 Senators asking questions, and just five minutes of time allotted for each, there was limited potential for follow-up questions to and grilling of the CEO during the testimony at Congress.

“It’s not enough to just connect people. We have to make sure those connections are positive. It’s not enough to give people a voice. We have to make sure people aren’t using it to harm people or spread disinformation,” Zuckerberg told the Senators.

“What we know now is that Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed information by buying it. When we first contacted Cambridge Analytica, they told us they had deleted the data,” Zuckerberg said.

On a question if Facebook has a political bias, he said the platform’s goal was not to engage in political speech.

Zuckerberg said he understands the concerns, especially because “Facebook and tech industry is located in Silicon Valley, which is an extremely Left-leaning place”. IANS