File Photo, Credit: Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com / bub.blicio.us, via Wikimedia Commons
Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to appear before the House Committee on energy and commerce with a clear acknowledgement of mistakes around privacy of users of the social media platform but expressed determination to improve it working through a series of new steps.
Facebook has been under a cloud since revelation this year that a political advocacy company Cambridge Analytica was allowed access to 87 million FB users without their consent.
The social media giant is also facing scrutiny in the wake of Russian meddling in the 2016 election campaign.
But Zuckerberg plans to remind the lawmakers of the positives that the platform has brought to the users.
“As Facebook has grown, people everywhere have gotten a powerful new tool to stay connected to the people they love, make their voices heard, and build communities and businesses. Just recently, we’ve seen the #metoo movement and the March for Our Lives, organized, at least in part, on Facebook,” he says, according to a statement released in advance of the hearing by the House Committee.
“After Hurricane Harvey, people raised more than $20 million for relief. And more than 70 million small businesses now use Facebook to grow and create jobs,” he will tell the panel.
Yet, Zuckerberg, who launched the social media outlet while still in college, plans to recognize shortcomings that enabled exploitation of the platform.
“But it’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.
“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”
He will assure the American legislators of a serious self-examination of the Facebook and list a range of steps to protect it against misuse.
“It’s not enough to just connect people, we have to make sure those connections are positive. It’s not enough to just give people a voice, we have to make sure people aren’t using it to hurt people or spread misinformation. It’s not enough to give people control of their information, we have to make sure developers they’ve given it to are protecting it too. Across the board, we have a responsibility to not just build tools, but to make sure those tools are used for good. It will take some time to work through all of the changes we need to make, but I’m committed to getting it right. That includes improving the way we protect people’s information and safeguard elections around the world.”
Here is a link to the full testimony as released by the House panel on energy and commerce:
http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF00/20180411/108090/HHRG-115-IF00-Wstate-ZuckerbergM-20180411.pdf
