Zuckerberg says sorry for Facebook’s ‘fake news’
MARK Zuckerberg was last night repeatedly unable to answer basic questions about Facebook when grilled by US politicians.
The stony-faced billionaire told senators many times that his team would have to ‘follow up’ on vital privacy issues such as whether his social network was able to access the message and call logs of children as young as 13.
When Mr Zuckerberg was asked whether he would feel ‘comfortable’ telling congress the hotel he was staying in and who he messaged, his answer was no.
Senator Dick Durbin told him: ‘I think this may be what this is all about. How much you give away in modern America in the name of “connecting people all over the world”.’ Mr Zuckerberg started the hearing telling US congress: ‘I’m sorry’ after he was told by chairman John Thune that Facebook could be seen to ‘represent the American dream’ – but had then violated its users’ privacy.
He told the tech billionaire: ‘You have an obligation to ensure that dream does not become a privacy nightmare for the users who use Facebook.’ Within just an hourand-a-half, Mr Zuckerberg told senators scores of times that he would have to ‘get back’ to them when grilled about certain issues.
Asked about whether the network could collect phone logs of children aged before 13 to 17, he said he would ‘get my team to follow up afterwards’.
Even in the first few minutes, the 33-year-old was unable to provide answers to two questions, telling the chairman he did not have ‘the exact information’ and would need to ‘follow up’.
On the topic of the fact that Facebook relied on its users’ data – which was farmed out to advertisers – he said: ‘My top priority has always been our social mission… advertisers and developers will never take priority over that as long as I am running Facebook.’ And he went on to make the extraordinary claim that the reason users had not been given full transparency about how the network works was because ‘long privacy policies are very confusing’.
He admitted he did not alert US regulators about the Cambridge Analytica scandal because he had believed it was a ‘closed case’.
His comments came after it was last night claimed CA was able to read Facebook users’ private messages. The shock revelation, which meant that those drawn into the scandal could have seen their intimate conversations analysed, emerged just hours before Mr Zuckerberg’s grilling.
The Facebook chief was due to be questioned in US congress last night as dozens of cut-outs of his own image were erected in front of the Capitol with the words ‘Fix Fakebook’.
Facebook let extra details slip in a post sent out to users whose information had been harvested yesterday. It read: ‘A small number of people who logged into “This Is Your Digital Life” also shared their own News Feed, timeline, posts and messages which may have included messages from you,’ according to Wired magazine.
Last night, CA denied the claim, tweeting: ‘GSR did not share the content of any private messages with Cambridge Analytica or SCL Elections. Neither company has ever handled such data.’
Facebook estimates that as many as 87million people could be affected.
The social media network and CA are now facing multiple lawsuits over alleged misuse of personal information.
In a bid to try and claw back control of the network, Facebook announced that it would offer rewards for those who alerted it to situations where private information was being misused.
Although rewards will be based on the impact of each report, the minimum would start at around €400 for verified cases affecting 10,000 people or more.
‘While there is no maximum, high-impact bug, reports have garnered as much as $40,000 (€32,000) for people who bring them to our attention,’ Facebook’s Collin Greene, head of product security, said.
‘Privacy policies are confusing’ Facebook is facing multiple lawsuits