Mark Zuckerberg has finally opened up about the huge Cambridge Analytica controversy and has apologized for the scandal which has rocked the company. Through an official blog post, he admitted that Facebook made mistakes, and that the company will step up the efforts by introducing certain reforms so that such incidents are not repeated in the future.
I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform. I’m serious about doing what it takes to protect our community. While this specific issue involving Cambridge Analytica should no longer happen with new apps today, that doesn’t change what happened in the past. We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward.
Moreover, the Facebook chief also gave a series of interviews to leading media outlets such as CNN, WIRED and the New York Times to talk about the data leak incident and how the company plans to avert similar privacy catastrophes in the future. When questioned about the huge data breach that has put people’s trust in Facebook on the line and tarnished the company’s reputation, he said “This was a major breach of trust and I’m really sorry this happened. Our responsibility now is to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Addressing the Russian meddling in the US presidential elections, their abuse of Facebook’s platform as well as the misuse of user data by Cambridge Analytica, he said,“You can bet that we are really committed to doing everything we need to, to make sure that the integrity of those elections on Facebook is secured.” When asked about the possibility of Facebook’s platform being exploited again for interfering in upcoming elections, he said,”I’m sure someone’s trying. 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, and there are going to be some new tactics that we need to make sure that we observe and get in front of.”
In his interview with WIRED, Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Facebook testifies before the Congress on a number of issues, and if he turns out to be the most informed person about an ongoing issue at Facebook, he will happily testify before the Congress. On being asked by the New York Time’s Kevin Roose about the 50 million people whose data was illegally obtained by Cambridge Analytica, the Facebook founder said,“We’re going to tell anyone whose data may have been shared.”
Here’s the full text of Zuckerberg’s post:
He also revealed that Facebook will be investigating thousands of apps that collect user data just to make sure that the safety of users’ data is not jeopardized again, and certain restrictions will be imposed on developers when it comes to the amount of data they can access.
