‘That was a mistake, I’m sorry’: Mark Zuckerberg apologises for data breach and failing to act on fake news and election interference as EU lawmakers threaten to ‘break up Facebook as a monopoly’

Tuesday, May 22, 2018
By Paul Martin

Mark Zuckerberg is appearing via webcast at European Parliament
The Facebook founder has apologised over the Cambridge Analytica scandal
He has urged that keeping people safe is more important than chasing profits
EU lawmakers are submitting a series of questions now which Zuckerberg will address one at a time afterwards
Facebook admitted up to 87million users may have had their data hijacked by British consultancy Cambridge Analytica

By ROD ARDEHALI
DAILYMAIL.COM
22 May 2018

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg apologised to the European Parliament on Tuesday and said the social media giant is taking steps to prevent a repeat of a massive breach of users’ personal data.

Zuckerberg also pledged to keep investing in Europe as he made the latest stop on a tour of contrition over the Cambridge Analytica scandal that began in the US Congress in April.

Zuckerberg told the livestreamed hearing in Brussels that it has become clear in the last two years that Facebook executives ‘haven’t done enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm’.

And that goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections or developers misusing people’s information. We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility,’ he said.

‘That was a mistake, and I’m sorry for it.’

Zuckerberg stressed the importance of Europeans to Facebook and said he was sorry for not doing enough to prevent abuse of the platform.

‘We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility. That was a mistake and I am sorry for it,’ Zuckerberg said in his opening remarks.

In response to questions about whether Facebook ought to be broken up, Zuckerberg said the question was not whether there should be regulation but what kind of regulation there should be.

‘Some sort of regulation is important and inevitable,’ he said.

He declined to answer when leading lawmakers asked him again as the session concluded whether there was any cross use of data between Facebook and subsidiaries like WhatsApp or on whether he would give an undertaking to let users block targeting adverts.

EU lawmakers, who had pledged to grill the Facebook chief, failed to land a telling blow as Zuckerberg said he would write to them and give more detailed answers to the specific questions he had failed to address.

The session took on an unconvential format, where more than two thirds of the 90-minute meeting were spent on questions, with EU lawmakers given an allotted time to speak.

By the time Zuckerberg – who had requested the format – had listened to each individuals series of points, there was only seven minute to go until the scheduled ending of the event.

In his opening remarks, Zuckerberg said it had ‘become clear over the last couple of years that we haven’t done enough to prevent the tools we’ve built from being used for harm as well.’

The Rest…HERE

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