Mark Zuckerberg is willing to testify to Congress, isn’t sure if the Russians have your data. And, he’s sorry. – By Jessica Guynn (usatoday.com) / March 21 2018
SAN FRANCISCO — In a whirlwind of media interviews on Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he is willing to testify before Congress, that he’s not sure if Russian operatives — or other bad people — got their hands on your Facebook data, and it might be OK if Facebook gets regulated.
And, oh yeah, he’s sorry, really sorry, about this whole Cambridge Analytica mess.
On whether Facebook data fell into the hands of Russian operatives
“I can’t really say that. I hope that we will know that more certainly after we do an audit,” he told Wired magazine.
On whether Facebook should be regulated
“I actually am not sure we shouldn’t be regulated,” he told CNN.
“You know, I think in general, technology is an increasingly important trend in the world, and I actually think the question is more what is the right regulation rather than yes or no, should it be regulated?”
On whether he would testify before Congress
“If it is ever the case that I am the most informed person at Facebook in the best position to testify, I will happily do that,” he told Wired.
On why Facebook didn’t ban Cambridge Analytica in 2015
“They gave us that formal certification (that they didn’t have Facebook data). At the time, they told us they never had gotten access to raw Facebook data, so we made that decision,” he told the New York Times.
On whether he now wishes Facebook had demanded proof Facebook users’ data was deleted
“They gave us a formal and legal certification, and it seems at this point that that was false,” he told the New York Times.
On what Facebook is doing now
“It’s hard to know what we’ll find, but we are going to review thousands of apps,” he told CNN. “This is going to be an intensive process.”
On the possibility of foreign interference in the 2018 midterm elections
“The good news here is that these problems aren’t necessarily rocket science. They’re hard, but they’re things that if you invest and work on making it harder for adversaries to do what they’re trying to do, you can really reduce the amount of false news, make it harder for foreign governments to interfere,” he told the New York Times.
On whether Facebook influenced the 2016 election
“That is hard. It’s really hard for me to have a full assessment of that.”
On whether other groups like Cambridge Analytica have Facebook user data
“Well, I think the question here is do — are our app developers, who people have given access to their data, are they doing something that people don’t want? Are they selling the data in a way that people don’t want, or are they giving it to someone that they don’t have authorization to do?” he told CNN. “And this is something that I think we now need to go figure out, right?”
On people threatening to #deletefacebook
“I don’t think we’ve seen a meaningful number of people act on that, but, you know, it’s not good,” he told the New York Times.
“I think it’s a clear signal that this is a major trust issue for people, and I understand that. And whether people delete their app over it or just don’t feel good about using Facebook, that’s a big issue that I think we have a responsibility to rectify.”
On whether he’s sorry
“This was a major breach of trust, and I’m really sorry that this happened,” he told CNN. He made similar comments to other outlets.
