Facebook (FB) Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is expected to tell a House panel this week that the social media giant made a "big mistake" regarding issues of user privacy and meddling in the 2016 election.
XTranscripts of Zuckerberg's expected testimony were released by Congress as the social media giant faces intense scrutiny over user privacy and meddling in the 2016 election. In his prepared remarks to the House committee, Zuckerberg begins with comments on the positive aspects of world's largest social media platform, which has more than 2.1 billion registered users, before he offers an apology over the scandal.
"Just recently, we've seen the #metoo movement and the March for Our Lives, organized, at least in part, on Facebook," Zuckerberg said. He also said more than 70 million small businesses now use Facebook to grow and create jobs.
"But it's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well," he said. "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."
This week, Zuckerberg will testify before two congressional panels emanating from the explosive Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, where personal information on 87 million users could have been wrongfully obtained without their knowledge. Zuckerberg also is expected to be grilled on Russian attempts to sway the 2016 election, as well as content categorized as fake news, propaganda and hate speech.
He is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, followed by testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.
In his prepared remarks, Zuckerberg discusses what happened, what it's doing to prevent abuse of its platform, and Russian election interference.
As Zuckerberg heads to Capitol Hill for the first time, the company is under pressure for him to relinquish his role as chairman. Zuckerberg has an iron grip on Facebook, as the co-founder, chairman and chief executive, who also maintains voting control. That is raising questions from investors about the independence of a board.
Scott Stringer is New York City's comptroller and custodian of the city's $193 billion pension fund, which holds $895 million in Facebook stock. He wrote a letter March 27 that pushes Facebook to "add three new independent directors and replace Zuckerberg with an independent chairman, among other things," says a report in the Washington Post on Monday.
Facebook on Monday also announced the establishment of a panel of independent scholars that plan to provide "credible research about the role of social media in elections, as well as democracy more general," the announcement said.
The Federal Trade Commission also recently confirmed it has opened an investigation into the data scandal. Zuckerberg recently made his first public comments on the data scandal in which he took responsibility. He outlined three steps the company plans to take to prevent abuse on the platform.
Shares of Facebook on the stock market today were up 1.6%, near 159.80.
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The post Facebook's Zuckerberg Admits Big Mistake, Apologizes For Scandal appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.
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