Was a mistake, I’m sorry: Zuckerberg

San Francisco, March 21

Facebook Inc chief executive Mark Zuckerberg apologised on Wednesday for mistakes his company made in how it handled data belonging to 50 million of its users and promised tougher steps to restrict developers’ access to such information.

The world’s largest social media network is facing growing government scrutiny in Europe and the US about a whistleblower’s allegations that London-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed user information to build profiles on American voters that were later used to help elect US President Donald Trump in 2016.

“This was a major breach of trust. I’m really sorry this happened. We have a basic responsibility to protect people’s data,” Zuckerberg said in an interview with CNN, breaking a public silence since the scandal erupted at the weekend.

Editorial: Towards zero privacy

His plans did not represent a big reduction of advertisers’ ability to use Facebook data, which is the company’s lifeblood.

Zuckerberg said he was open to additional government regulation and happy to testify before the US Congress if he was the right person. “I’m not sure we shouldn’t be regulated…. I actually think the question is more what is the right regulation rather than yes or no, should it be regulated?... People should know who is buying the ads that they see on Facebook.” 

Zuckerberg said Facebook was committed to stopping interference in the US midterm election in November and elections in India and Brazil. Zuckerberg, in an interview with The New York Times, referred to the artificial intelligence (AI) tools deployed by Facebook to detect fake accounts trying to manipulate news and influence the elections.

Such a tool was deployed for the first time in the French elections in 2017. “The new AI tools we built after the 2016 elections found, I think, more than 30,000 fake accounts that we believe were linked to Russian sources who were trying to do the same kind of tactics they did in the US in the 2016 election. We were able to disable them and prevent that from happening on a large scale in France,” he said.

This is for the first time that Zuckerberg has publicly talked about Facebook being allegedly used for influencing polls. “I feel a lot better about the systems now. At the same time, I think Russia and other governments are going to get more sophisticated in what they do, too. So we need to make sure that we up our game,” he said.

“This is a massive focus for us to make sure we’re dialed in for not only the 2018 elections in the US, but the Indian elections, the Brazilian elections, and a number of other elections that are going on this year that are really important,” Zuckerberg said.

He said there is a lot of hard work that the Facebook needs to do to make it harder for nations like Russia to do poll interference. — Agencies

FB to Enhance security for India elections

Zuckerberg said Facebook is enhancing security features to ensure integrity of upcoming key elections in countries like India on its platform, as the social media giant faced flak over a major data breach scandal by a UK firm linked to Donald Trump’s poll campaign.

‘Bid to disrupt mid-term polls’ 

• Mark Zuckerberg says he is “sure someone’s trying” to use Facebook to meddle with US mid-term polls in Nov 
• “I’m sure someone’s trying,”he said when asked about the possibility of meddling happening right now
• “I’m sure that there’s v2, version two, of whatever the Russian effort was in 2016, I’m sure they’re working on that,” he said

Company shares fall further

• Facebook shares fell 1.5 per cent in premarket trading on Thursday as the apology failed to quell Wall Street nerves
• The company has lost nearly $46 billion of its stock market value over the past three days 
• Investors fear that any failure to protect personal data could deter advertisers and users and invite tougher regulation for the social media giant