Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg has apologized to users. This week, he will apologize to Congress.
WASHINGTON — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has already apologized to users for not doing enough to protect their privacy. Now he plans to apologize to Congress, saying in prepared testimony that Facebook hasn’t done enough to prevent its tools from being used for harm.
Zuckerberg’s written statement was released ahead of two days of congressional hearings in which he will not only try to restore public trust in his company but also stave off federal regulation that some lawmakers have floated.
His company is under fire in the worst privacy crisis in its history after it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a datamining firm affiliated with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, gathered personal information from 87 million users to try to influence elections.
Facebook was scheduled to begin notifying users Monday if their data has been swept up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
In the testimony released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which he is expected to deliver Wednesday, Zuckerberg apologizes for fake news, hate speech, a lack of data privacy and foreign interference in the 2016 elections on his platform.
“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake,” he says in the remarks. “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry.”
Zuckerberg will testify before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees on Tuesday and before the House panel on Wednesday. On Monday, he met privately with the leaders of the Senate committees.
After resisting previous calls to testify, Zuckerberg agreed to come to Capitol Hill this month after reports surfaced — and the company confirmed — that Cambridge Analytica had gathered Facebook users’ data.
Zuckerberg met Monday with Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce panel. Nelson said he believes Zuckerberg is taking the congressional hearings seriously “because he knows there is going to be a hard look at regulation.”