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Six takeaways from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Senate testimony on data breaches
USA Today
97 d ago
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us world
One Silicon Valley star witness, 44 media-hungry senators, and more than five hours of mostly tough questions and often ambiguous answers. Here are the highlights.
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Mark Zuckerberg Congressional testimony: Watch day 2 here - CNET
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Here's what Mark Zuckerberg plans to say as he defends Facebook on Capitol Hill today
Zuckerberg is set to testify before the House Energy and Commerce committee Wednesday.
Gawker Media
98 d ago
Here’s Mark Zuckerberg’s Written Testimony for Congress
Mark Zuckerberg is ready to apologize.
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Motherboard
98 d ago
Congress Should Grill Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook's Monopoly, Not Privacy
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce released Mark Zuckerberg’s upcoming testimony on Monday, ahead of a Wednesday hearing to discuss the use of Facebook user data during the 2016 election cycle.
The prepared testimony largely rehashes Zuckerberg’s ongoing apology tour , which has consisted of a series of media appearances and blog posts about how Cambridge Analytica and Russian disinformation campaigns were able to leverage his platform to manipulate the 2016 election. One thing Zuckerberg does not take responsibility for, however, is swallowing the internet with his platforms , and using the power, influence, and deep pockets of Facebook to gobble up companies that threaten his social media monopoly.
As many have already pointed out, Facebook is taking nominal steps to protect user data in the aftermath of various crises that have plagued the platform. Great! But the real problem (well, another major problem) is that so much of what we do on the internet today revolves around Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and the services that rely on Facebook as a login mechanism. Simply put: Zuckerberg shouldn’t be put in the position of “taking responsibility” for widespread interference in America’s elections, because one single company shouldn’t be so damn powerful.
Regardless of what Facebook does with consumer data, its centralized nature and sheer size are going to continue to remain problems
Zuckerberg’s testimony makes clear that he wants to discuss how he plans to reform Facebook. He talks about the specific features on Facebook that got us to this point, and the loopholes that have already been closed. If Zuckerberg can focus his hearings this week on privacy, the American people will, at best, get some small changes to the existing status quo.
Really, Zuckerberg is trying to make just enough changes so that Congress will allow him to continue Silicon Valley’s tradition of self-regulation. And even if it doesn’t, Congress has passed a plethora of laws in recent years that have sold out Americans’ privacy in favor of large corporations.
During questioning, lawmakers should instead focus on Facebook’s power and influence. Why was Facebook allowed to purchase WhatsApp and Instagram? Are we cool with Instagram kneecapping Snapchat by ripping off Stories ? Why is it allowed to silo Americans’ thoughts and opinions using its powerful, black box News Feed algorithm? And why is it allowed to hold businesses hostage by forcing them to pay to reach people who have specifically said they want to see content from their pages in the News Feed?
Anyone who says they know how to fix the mess that Facebook has made is lying, but the path forward is likely to involve fostering a healthier social media and news media ecosystem. Regardless of what Facebook does with consumer data and privacy controls, its centralized nature and sheer size are going to continue to remain problems. If Zuckerberg manages to focus the conversation on how Facebook screwed up and how it can be fixed rather than how it has monopolized the internet, nothing is going to change.
USA Today
98 d ago
Read Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's planned testimony before Congress
What Facebook knew about the Cambridge Analytica data leak, in Zuckerberg's own words.
Business Insider
98 d ago
People think Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a robot — this excellent SNL parody of Zuck perfectly demonstrates why (FB)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on a public relations tear in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed that as many as 87 million people had their Facebook data scraped — data that was used to target political ads and help sway elections, including the 2016 US presidential election.
NBC/Broadway Video
"Saturday Night Live" parodied Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this weekend in its regular "Weekend Update" segment. The role of Zuck was played by "SNL" cast member Alex Moffat, who nailed the stilted, rehearsed cadence of the embattled Facebook CEO. The parody is a great example of how the public views Zuckerberg at this crucial moment in the company's history. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on a public relations tear in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed that as many as 87 million people had their Facebook data scraped — data that was used to target political ads and help sway elections, including the 2016 US presidential election.
Zuck's been doing interviews and making changes at Facebook, as part of the PR push. But many of his answers have come across as stilted, rehearsed, and impersonal — a recurring theme for a man sometimes referred to as " Zuckerborg " by critics. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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DON'T MISS: People think Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a robot — this excellent SNL parody of Zuck perfectly demonstrates why
The Wall Street Journal
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook Made Mistakes on 'Fake News,' Privacy
In testimony to Congress, the Facebook chief is set to say the social-media giant didn’t do enough to prevent its tools from being used for harm.
Business Insider
98 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg plans to tell Congress that as long as he's CEO, advertisers won't take priority over Facebook's users
AP
Facebook released the prepared testimony that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will share as his opening remarks at the congressional hearing on Wednesday with the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The Facebook CEO will testify before both the Senate and Congressional hearings this week, in light of an investigation into Facebook's role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal involving the irresponsible use of an estimated 87 million users' data. Zuckerberg's testimony concludes that Facebook's community is his top priority, and says that "advertisers and developers will never take priority over that as long as I'm running Facebook." The United States Congress released Mark Zuckerberg's prepared testimony ahead of his congressional hearing with the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that will kick off at 10 a.m. EST on April 11.
The hearing will give congressmen the chance to ask the Facebook CEO directly about Facebook's involvement in the ongoing scandal in which it was revealed that data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained and used data from an estimated 87 million Facebook profiles to influence voters in the 2016 election. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Mashable
98 d ago
Read Mark Zuckerberg's prepared testimony ahead of Facebook’s congressional hearing
Mark Zuckerberg has a lot to answer for.
Following weeks of mounting criticism, Zuckerberg is heading to Washington D.C. to answer questions from key members of Congress on data privacy issues in the wake of Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Now, we know exactly what he plans to say. On Monday, the Energy and Commerce Committee published Mark Zuckerberg's prepared remarks , ahead of his appearance before the committee on Wednesday.
SEE ALSO: Sheryl Sandberg desperately tries to soften Facebook’s image before Congressional hearings
"Facebook is an idealistic and optimistic company. For most of our existence, we focused on all the good that connecting people can bring," Zuckerberg says in the written testimony. "But it’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well." Read more...
More about Tech , Facebook , Mark Zuckerberg , Social Media Companies , and Tech
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The Guardian
98 d ago
Zuckerberg will defend Facebook as 'positive force in the world' in testimony
CEO releases prepared written remarks ahead of hearings before Congress‘Facebook is an idealistic and optimistic company’ but admits making ‘big mistake’
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg will defend the social platform as a “positive force in the world” when he addresses Congress on Tuesday while admitting he made “a big mistake” by not taking seriously the social network’s responsibility to its two billion users.
Zuckerberg, facing a firestorm of criticism over Facebook’s cavalier attitude to its users data, released his prepared written remarks on Monday, ahead of two appearances before Congress this week when lawmakers will quiz him about a range of failings including the privacy scandal involving political consultant Cambridge Analytica and Russian use of the platform ahead of the US election.
Continue reading...
Reuters
98 d ago
CEO Zuckerberg says Facebook could have done more to prevent misuse
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg met U.S. lawmakers individually on Monday and told Congress in written testimony that the social media network should have done more to prevent itself and its members' data being misused.
CNET News
98 d ago
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg goes to Washington (The 3:59, Ep. 382) - CNET
Can Zuck make nice with Congress? Also, we discuss YouTube getting into hot water over how it deals with kids watching its videos and new red iPhones coming.
The Verge
98 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg’s Wednesday congressional hearing testimony is now online
Mark Zuckerberg’s prepared testimony for Wednesday’s congressional hearing has been posted online. The seven-page statement starts with an apology from Zuckerberg, who says Facebook failed to take a broad enough view of its responsibilities. “That was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry,” he says. “I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”
Zuckerberg will be testifying before the US House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday after he faces another hearing in the Senate on Tuesday. This testimony covers a lot of familiar ground, including the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the Russia-linked Internet Research Agency’s misinformation campaign . As Josh Constine at T...
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CNET News
97 d ago
5 notable themes from Mark Zuckerberg’s opening testimony - CNET
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The Wall Street Journal
98 d ago
Ahead of Zuckerberg Testimony, Facebook Already Has Made Changes
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USA Today
98 d ago
What to expect from the Zuckerberg testimony
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify at two Capitol Hill hearings this week over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and we asked our tech reporter why that matters.
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Mashable
98 d ago
5 questions Mark Zuckerberg should answer at Facebook’s congressional hearings
More about Facebook , Mark Zuckerberg , Cambridge Analytica , Tech , and Social Media Companies
Mark Zuckerberg is going to testify, but the question remains as to whether or not he'll really say anything of substance.
The CEO is in Washington D.C. this week to assure lawmakers and the concerned citizens of Facebook Nation that he knows he needs to do better, that he is going to make it all OK, and that — above all — he is listening. That being said, his prepared testimony is a bunch of recycled pablum masquerading as contrition and doesn't suggest a good start.
He can, and should, do better. Thankfully, we're here to extend a helping hand.
SEE ALSO: A look at the weirdest data Facebook has on 6 Mashable reporters Read more...
The Daily Beast
97 d ago
What Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Will Be Asked in Congress’ Hot Seat
Win McNamee/Getty
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify in front of three congressional committees and, despite a last-ditch media charm offensive, it’s shaping up to be a good old-fashioned, bipartisan grilling.
The fun starts for Zuckerberg tomorrow at the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees Tuesday afternoon and continues on Wednesday at the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
This comes after last week’s Facebook media-blitz –where Zuckerberg interviewed with Vox , held a conference call Q-and-A with reporters, and COO Sheryl Sandberg sat down to TV interviews .
Read more at The Daily Beast.
New York Times
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg Testimony: Senators Question Facebook’s Commitment to Privacy
Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, began the first of two marathon hearings, answering tough questions on the company’s mishandling of data in a series of debacles over the past year.
TechCrunch
97 d ago
Watch Zuckerberg’s Senate testimony live right here
Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will begin two of the most publicly scrutinized days of his career.
This afternoon, members of the Senate will hear from Zuckerberg on data use, protection and privacy in the midst of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Russian election meddling. While Zuckerberg’s prepared statement has already been released to the public , there are plenty of lingering questions to be answered.
We’ll be watching diligently and bringing you all the breaking news and analysis from the hearing. But if you want to watch along yourself, here’s what you need to know:
The hearing begins at 2:15 pm ET.
It’s a joint hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
The hearing will be live streamed right here .
Reuters
97 d ago
Facebook's Zuckerberg faces Senate hearing but little hope for action
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's No. 1 mission during his appearance before U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday and Wednesday will be to defend against calls to regulate internet-based companies.
Gawker Media
97 d ago
How to Watch Mark Zuckerberg's Senate Testimony Live on YouTube, Facebook, and VR
Mark Zuckerberg is on the hot seat today. The billionaire CEO of Facebook will testify on Capitol Hill about the privacy scandals that have rocked his company, including the theft of data from over 87 million Facebook users by the political research firm Cambridge Analytica.
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The Wall Street Journal
97 d ago
What to Watch for During Facebook CEO Zuckerberg's Testimony
Lawmakers pressing Facebook on its handling of personal user data turn their sights to Mark Zuckerberg. Here are five things to look for when he testifies before Senate and House committees.
WIRED
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg Answers to Congress For Facebook's Troubles
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New York Times
97 d ago
Three Takeaways from Mark Zuckerberg’s Senate Testimony: DealBook Briefing
Mr. Zuckerberg’s testimony before the Senate leaves Facebook and its peers on the back foot in three important ways.
Business Insider
97 d ago
Facebook is gaining ground ahead of Zuckerberg's testimony (FB)
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to give two days of congressional testimony on Capitol Hill related to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Shares of Facebook were up 0.88% ahead of Monday's opening bell. Facebook has seen about $79 billion of market cap wiped out since news of the scandal broke. Watch Facebook in real time here . Shares of Facebook are ticking higher, up 0.88% at $159.33, ahead of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's congressional testimony on the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
Zuckerberg is scheduled to appear before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees Tuesday starting at 2:15 p.m. ET before testifying in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday. The hearings will allow members of Congress an opportunity to get a sense of Facebook's privacy problems — and what can and should be done about them. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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TechCrunch
97 d ago
A brief history of Facebook’s privacy hostility ahead of Zuckerberg’s testimony
Facebook: An alternative timeline
The Facebook founder will be questioned by the Senate Judiciary and Senate Commerce Committees later today — in a session entitled “Facebook, Social Media Privacy, and the Use and Abuse of Data.”
Mark Zuckerberg is also due to testify before Congress on Wednesday — to be asked about the company’s use and protection of user data.
As we’ve pointed out already, his written testimony is pretty selective and self-serving in terms of what he does and doesn’t include in his version of events.
Indeed, in the face of the snowballing Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal, the company’s leadership (see also: Sheryl Sandberg ) has been quick to try to spin an idea that it was simply too “idealistic and optimistic” — and that ‘bad actors’ exploited its surfeit of goodwill.
This of course is pure fiction.
Facebook’s long history of privacy hostility should make that plain to any thinking person. As former FTC director David Vladeck wrote earlier this month: “Facebook can’t claim to be clueless about how this happened. The FTC consent decree put Facebook on notice.”
To be clear, that’s the 2011 FTC consent decree — ergo, a major regulatory privacy sanction that Facebook incurred well over six years ago.
Every Facebook privacy screw up since is either carelessness or intention.
Vladeck’s view is that Facebook’s actions were indeed calculated. “All of Facebook’s actions were calculated and deliberate, integral to the company’s business model, and at odds with the company’s claims about privacy and its corporate values,” he argues.
So we thought it would be helpful to compile an alternative timeline ahead of Zuckerberg’s verbal testimony, highlighting some curious details related to the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal — such as why Facebook hired (and apparently still employs) the co-director of the company that built the personality quiz app that “improperly shared” so much Facebook data with the controversial company — as well as detailing some of its other major privacy missteps over the years.
There are A LOT of these so forgive us if we’ve missed anything — and feel free to put any additions in the comments.
February 2004 — Facebook is launched by Harvard College student Mark Zuckerberg
September 2006 — Facebook launches News Feed, broadcasting the personal details of Facebook users — including relationship changes — without their knowledge or consent. Scores of users protest at the sudden privacy intrusion . Facebook goes on to concede: “We really messed this one up… we did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them.”
November 2007 — Facebook launches a program called Beacon, injecting personal information such as users’ online purchases and video rentals on third party sites into the News Feed without their knowledge or consent. There’s another massive outcry — and a class action lawsuit is filed. Facebook eventually pays $9.5M to settle the lawsuit. It finally shutters the controversial program in 2009
May 2008 — a complaint is filed with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada concerning the “unnecessary and non-consensual collection and use of personal information by Facebook”. The following year the company is found to be “in contravention” of the country’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. Facebook is told to make changes to its privacy policy and tools — but the Commissioner is still expressing concerns at the end of 2009
February 2009 — Facebook revises its terms of service to state that users can’t delete their data when they leave the service and there’s another outcry. Backpeddling furiously in a subsequent conference call, Zuckerberg says: “We do not own user data, they own their data. We never intended to give that impression and we feel bad that we did”
November & December 2009 — Facebook again revises its privacy policy and the privacy settings for users and now, in a fell swoop, it makes a range of personal information public by default — available for indexing on the public web. We describe this as a privacy fiasco . Blogging critically about the company’s actions, the EFF also warns: “Major privacy settings are now set to share with everyone by default, in some cases without any user choice”
December 2009 — a complaint (and supplementary complaint ) is filed by EPIC with the FTC about Facebook’s privacy settings and privacy policy, with the coalition of privacy groups asserting these are inconsistent with the site’s information sharing practices, and that Facebook is misleading users into believing they can still maintain control over their personal information. The FTC later writes a letter saying the complaint “raises issues of particular interest for us at this time”
April 2010 — four senators call on Facebook to change its policies after it announces a product called Instant Personalization — which automatically hands over some user data to certain third-party sites as soon as a person visits them. The feature has an opt-out but Facebook users are default opted in. “[T]his class of information now includes significant and personal data points that should be kept private unless the user chooses to share them,” the senators warn
May 2010 — following another user backlash against settings changes Facebook makes changes to its privacy controls yet again . “We’re really going to try not to have another backlash,” says Facebook’s VP of product Chris Cox. “If people say they want their stuff to be visible to friends only, it will apply to that stuff going forward”
May 2010 — EPIC complains again to the FTC, requesting an investigation. The watchdog quietly begins an investigation the following year
May 2010 — Facebook along with games developer Zynga is reported to the Norwegian data protection agency. The complaint focuses on app permissions, with the Consumer Council warning about “unreasonable and unbalanced terms and conditions”, and how Facebook users are unwittingly granting permission for personal data and content to be sold on
June 2011 — EPIC files another complaint to the FTC, focused on Facebook’s use of facial recognition technology to automatically tag users in photos uploaded to its platform
August 2011 — lawyer and privacy campaigner Max Schrems files a complaint against Facebook Ireland flagging its app permissions data sinkhole. “Facebook Ireland could not answer me which applications have accessed my personal data and which of my friends have allowed them to do so,” he writes. “Therefore there is practically no way how I could ever find out if a developer of an application has misused data it got from Facebook Ireland in some way”
November 2011 — Facebook settles an eight-count FTC complaint over deceptive privacy practices, agreeing to make changes opt-in going forward and to gain express consent from users to any future changes. It must also submit to privacy audits every two years for the next 20 years; bar access to content on deactivated accounts; and avoid misrepresenting the privacy or security of user data. The settlement with the FTC is finalized the following year . Facebook is not fined
December 2011 — Facebook agrees to make some changes to how it operates internationally following Schrems’ complaint leading to an audit of its operations by the Irish Data Protection Commission
September 2012 — Facebook turns off an automatic facial recognition feature in Europe following another audit by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission. The privacy watchdog also recommends Facebook tightens app permissions on its platform, including to close down developers’ access to friends data
September 2012 — Facebook launches Custom Audiences , allowing advertisers to link their own databases of customer data with Facebook users to be able to target the same individuals with ads on its platform. Facebook’s T&Cs required businesses to have “provided appropriate notice to and secured any necessary consent from the data subjects” to attain and use these people’s contact info — but the company did not invest any effort in verifying whether consent had actually been obtained so did not actively enforce that rule
April 2013 — Facebook launches Partner Categories : Further enriching the capabilities of its ad targeting platform by linking up with major data broker companies which hold aggregate pools of third party data, including information on people’s offline purchases. Five years later Facebook announces it’s ending this access, likely as one of the measures needed to comply with the EU’s updated privacy framework, GDPR
May 2014 — Facebook finally announces at its developer conference that it will be shutting down an API that let developers harvest users’ friends data without their knowledge or consent, initially for new developer users — giving existing developers a year-long window to continue sucking this data
May 2014 — Facebook only now switches off the public default for users’ photos and status updates, setting default visibility to ‘friends’
May 2014 — Cambridge University professor Aleksandr Kogan runs a pilot of a personality test app (called thisisyourdigitallife) on Facebook’s platform with around 10,000 users. His company, GSR, then signs a data-licensing contract with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, in June 2014, to supply it with psychological profiles linked to US voters. Over the summer of 2014 the app is downloaded by around 270,000 Facebook users and ends up harvesting personal information on as many as 87 million people — the vast majority of whom would have not known or consented to data being passed
June 2014 — Facebook data scientists publish a study detailing the results of an experiment on nearly 700,000 users to determine whether showing them more positive or negative sentiment posts in the News Feed would affect their happiness levels (as deduced by what they posted). Consent had not been obtained from the Facebook users whose emotions were being experimenting on
February 2015 — a highly critical report by Belgium’s data watchdog examining another updated Facebook privacy policy asserts the company is breaching EU privacy law including by failing to obtain valid consent from users for processing their data
May 2015 — Facebook finally shutters its friends API for existing developers such as Kogan — but he has already been able to use this to suck out and pass on a massive cache of Facebook data to Cambridge Analytica
June 2015 — the Belgian privacy watchdog files a lawsuit against Facebook over the tracking of non-users via social plugins. Months later the court agrees . Facebook says it will appeal
November 2015 — Facebook hires Joseph Chancellor , the other founding director of GSR, to work as a quantitative social psychologist. Chancellor is still listed as a UX researcher at Facebook Research
December 2015 — the Guardian publishes a story detailing how the Ted Cruz campaign had paid UK academics to gather psychological profiles about the US electorate using “a massive pool of mainly unwitting US Facebook users built with an online survey”. After the story is published Facebook tells the newspaper it is “carefully investigating this situation” regarding the Cruz campaign
February 2016 — the French data watchdog files a formal order against Facebook , including for tracking web browsing habits and collecting sensitive user data such as political views without explicit consent
August 2016 — Facebook-owned WhatsApp announces a major privacy U-turn , saying it will start sharing user data with its parent company — including for marketing and ad targeting purposes. It offers a time-bound opt-out for the data-sharing but pushes a pre-ticked opt-in consent screen to users
November 2016 — facing the ire of regulators in Europe Facebook agrees to suspend some of the data-sharing between WhatsApp and Facebook (this regional ‘pause’ continues to this day ). The following year the French data watchdog also puts the company on formal warning that data transfers it is nonetheless carrying out — for ‘business intelligence’ purposes — still lack a legal basis
November 2016 — Zuckerberg describes the idea that fake news on Facebook’s platform could have influenced the outcome of the US election as “ a pretty crazy idea ” — a comment he later says he regrets making, saying it was “too flippant” and a mistake
May 2017 –– Facebook is fined $122M in Europe for providing “incorrect or misleading” information to competition regulators who cleared its 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp. It had told them it could not automatically match user accounts between the two platforms, but two years later announced it would indeed be linking accounts
September 2017 — Facebook is fined $1.4M by Spain’s data watchdog, including for collecting data on users ideology and tracking web browsing habits without obtaining adequate consent. Facebook says it will appeal
October 2017 — Facebook says Russian disinformation distributed via its platform may have reached as many as 126 million Facebook users — upping previous estimates of the reach of ‘fake news’. It also agrees to release the Russian ads to Congress , but refuses to make them public
February 2018 — Belgian courts again rule Facebook’s tracking of non-users is illegal . The company keeps appealing
March 2018 — the Guardian and New York Times publish fresh revelations , based on interviews with former Cambridge Analytica employee Chris Wylie, suggesting as many as 50M Facebook users might have had their information passed to Cambridge Analytica without their knowledge or consent. Facebook confirms 270,000 people downloaded Kogan’s app. It also finally suspends the account of Cambridge Analytica and its affiliate, SCL, as well as the accounts of Kogan and Wylie
March 21, 2018 — Zuckerberg gives his first response to the revelations about how much Facebook user data was passed to Cambridge Analytica — but omits to explain why the company delayed investigating
March 2018 — the FTC confirms it is (re)investigating Facebook’s privacy practices in light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the company’s prior settlement. Facebook also faces a growing number of lawsuits
March 2018 — Facebook outs new privacy controls , as part of its compliance with the EU’s incoming GDPR framework , consolidating settings from 20 screens to just one. However it will not confirm whether all privacy changes will apply for all Facebook users — leading to a coalition of consumer groups to call for a firm commitment from the company to make the new standard its baseline for all services
April 2018 — Facebook also reveals that somewhere between 1BN and 2BN users have had their public Facebook information scraped via a now disabled feature which allowed people to look up users by inputting a phone number or email. The company says it discovered the feature was abused by “malicious actors”, writing: “Given the scale and sophistication of the activity we’ve seen, we believe most people on Facebook could have had their public profile scraped in this way”
April 2018 — the UK’s data watchdog confirms Facebook is one of 30 companies it’s investigating as part of an almost year-long probe into the use of personal data and analytics for political targeting
April 2018 — Facebook announces it has shut down a swathe of Russian troll farm accounts
April 2018 — Zuckerberg agrees to give testimony in front of US politicians — but continues to ignore calls to appear before UK politicians to answer questions about the role of fake news on its platform and the potential use of Facebook data in the UK’s Brexit referendum
April 2018 — the Canadian and British Columbian privacy watchdogs announce they are combining existing investigations into Facebook and a local data firm, AggregateIQ, which has been linked to Cambridge Analytica. The next day Facebook reportedly suspends AggregateIQ ‘s account on its platform
April 2018 — Facebook says it has started telling affected users whether their information was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica
Business Insider
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg's hearing has Facebook traders bracing for the worst
Reuters / Keith Bedford
Mark Zuckerberg is set to appear before Congress on Tuesday to address Facebook's involvement with a political-research company that improperly accessed as many as 87 million user profiles. Based on how stock traders are positioned, they're expecting Facebook's recent share-price woes to continue. Follow Facebook's stock here . Facebook 's stock has taken a serious beating in the weeks leading up to CEO Mark Zuckerberg's planned appearance in front of Congress on Tuesday. And based on how traders are positioning ahead of the 2:15 p.m. ET testimony, they think the selling can get even worse.
Short interest — or a measure of bets that a stock will decline — has spiked to 0.43% of shares outstanding for loan, its highest since September 2015, according to data compiled by IHS Markit . The gauge has more than doubled from its levels in mid-March. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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TechCrunch
97 d ago
Update: Facebook rolls out $40K user data abuse bounty ahead of Zuckerberg’s Congressional testimony
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Update: This article has been updated to include comment from Facebook that bounties will not be awarded retroactively.
Ahead of Mark Zuckerberg’s Senate testimony today, Facebook has rolled out a number of product updates — including a bounty hunting program of up to $40,000 for user data violations — meant to address (and blunt) the criticism he’s likely to face.
The bounties start at $500, according to a report by CNBC , and will be awarded if certain conditions are met.
First announced amid a slew of updates Zuckerberg offered up in March as the scandal around abuse of user data by the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica was first coming to light, the new bounty program is modeled off of Facebook’s attempts to combat hackers with a $1 million bug bounty.
It’s the second product announcement today, following news that Facebook would stop apps from accessing user data if they haven’t been launched within 90 days.
Facebook begins blocking apps from accessing user data after 90 days of non-use
To be eligible for the bounty, the offending app must impact more than 10,000 Facebook users and show a clear pattern of abuse and not “collection” (in this case, I’m assuming abuse would qualify as transferring the data to a third party without permission).
Facebook also stipulated that it should be a case that the company isn’t already actively investigating.
Examples of “out of scope” scenarios include: scraping, malware, social engineering applications, and cases involving other Facebook companies (like Instagram).
Facebook goes on to assure that if whistleblowers comply with the company’s policy, then the company won’t sue them (which is very big of Facebook). It also tries to ensure that all of the issues are kept quiet and far away from the meddling of the media which could blow the whole thing up and force company executives to testify in front of Congressional hearings.
Here are some other details from the program:
You give us time to investigate and act on an issue that you report before making any information about the report public or sharing such information with others. You make a good faith effort to avoid privacy violations and disruptions to others, including (but not limited to) unauthorized access to or destruction of data, and interruption or degradation of our or another’s services. You provide us with the Facebook data we request after we request it. You do not violate any other applicable laws or regulations, including (but not limited to) laws and regulations prohibiting the unauthorized access to data. Again, do not submit any data to us that you obtained unlawfully. Those are the requirements for folks who submit bounties to Facebook. For its part, Facebook agrees to investigate and validate the reports; determine the amount of the bounty; takes responsibility for publishing reports and updates on the bounty; and indicates that one bounty is paid per abuse (if multiple reports of abuse are submitted, it’s first come, first served for payouts).
“These researchers… they get paid… they get rewarded, and they get recognized,” says Pete Voss, the communications manager for security at Facebook. . “Once the issue is resolved they are free to talk about it at will.”
As for whether journalists will get any bounty from Facebook for exposing Cambridge Analytica’s abuses, Voss says they shouldn’t hold their breath. “Just like the bug bounty program, there will not be retroactive payment,” says Voss.
So, do news organizations get back pay from this Data Abuse Bounty? https://t.co/VpnFdlglAh
— Shira Ovide (@ShiraOvide) April 10, 2018
Mashable
97 d ago
How to watch Mark Zuckerberg's congressional testimony
Mark Zuckerberg heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to answer for Facebook's data-harvesting sins. And you can watch it live in all of its sure-to-be-schadenfreude-filled glory.
SEE ALSO: Everything you need to know about the Cambridge Analytica controversy
The Facebook chairman and CEO will testify to Congress on consumer privacy. Thanks to Cambridge Analytica whistleblowers and increasingly damning revelations (looking at you, Peter Thiel! ), the controversy about what Facebook does with its users' data refused to die down. Zuckerberg agreed to the hearings after congress called for accountability and answers in a formal summons . Read more...
More about Facebook , Congress , Mark Zuckerberg , Peter Thiel , and Cambridge Analytica
Entrepreneur
96 d ago
Here's What Mark Zuckerberg's Testimony Could Mean for the Future of Facebook (and How to Watch It Live)
Six concrete takeaways from the Facebook CEO's testimony before Congress.
Reuters
97 d ago
Facebook CEO Zuckerberg aims to pacify U.S. lawmakers
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg will strike a conciliatory tone on Tuesday in testimony before Congress as he looks to fend off the possibility of new regulations as a result of the privacy scandal engulfing his social network.
Business Insider
97 d ago
LIVE: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is about to testify to Congress (FB)
//www.youtube.com/embed/Tuln2V7FZuE
Width: 560px
Height: 315px 14:00 ET: The (padded) hotseat. Joe Perticone/Business Insider
13:44 ET: Zuckerberg won't be under oath. Plus, expect a short delay. Joe Perticone/Business Insider
13:33 ET: Get ready...
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Mark Zuckerberg is facing what may be the toughest grilling of his life.
On Tuesday at some time after 2 p.m ET (11 a.m. PT, or 7 p.m. BST), the Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying before a joint committee hearing of the United States Senate.
His appearance comes in the wake of a string of scandals — most recently from Cambridge Analytica improperly obtaining as many as 87 million users' personal data, but also the intense blowback the company has faced over fake news and its role in Russian interference in American elections.
Business Insider is in attendance at the hearing, and will be bringing readers all the news live — scroll down for the latest updates, including a livestream once it kicks off.
Facebook has quietly hired a team of experts, including a former adviser to President George W. Bush, to prep Zuckerberg ahead of the hearing. The 33-year-old executive is not a natural public speaker, and can sometimes come across as awkward and uncomfortable on stage. In an on-stage interview in 2010 — where he was again grilled over privacy — Zuckerberg sweated so much he had to take off his signature hoodie .
The challenges Facebook now face are immense, and the Cambridge Analytica revelations have snowballed into a broader crisis over the company's approach to privacy and accountability. The controversy is only heightened by the leak of an executive's memo defending growth at any cost, even if people died.
The reception of Zuckerberg's testimony on Tuesday — and at a second Congressional hearing on Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET (7 a.m. PT, or 3 p.m. BST) — has the potential to define how Facebook is seen as responding to these crises going forward.
Watch a livestream of the hearing below (once it all kicks off), and scroll down for all the latest updates as they come in... Youtube Embed://www.youtube.com/embed/Tuln2V7FZuE
Width: 560px
Height: 315px
Pictured above: The seat Zuckerberg will be sitting in for his testimony, which may go on for as long as four hours.
There has been some mirth on Twitter over what appears to be a booster seat on his chair — though Business Insider understands that it has been added for additional comfort, rather than to give the 5-foot-7-inch executive a height boost.
13:44 ET: Zuckerberg won't be under oath. Plus, expect a short delay. Joe Perticone/Business Insider
Two key updates for now.
One: There is a Senate floor vote scheduled for 14:15 ET today, so the hearing will kick off a little later than anticipated — expect the show to get started between 14:30-14:45 ET.
And second: Mark Zuckerberg won't be under oath when he testifies , so don't expect to see the iconic shot of him raising his right hand as he swears truthfulness. However, he will still be required to answer truthfully, as lying to Congress is a federal crime.
For context, the Judiciary Committee typically requires witnesses to be sworn in, but the Commerce Committee does not. In addition, Zuckerberg is a non-government witness, which Judiciary often does not require to go under oath.
13:33 ET: Get ready...
Hello, and welcome to Business Insider's liveblog of Mark Zuckerberg's congressional testimony!
We'll be bringing you all the latest news as it comes in. Stay tuned.
See Also:
Here's how to check your Facebook to see if you're one of the millions of users affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal People think Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a robot — this excellent SNL parody of Zuck perfectly demonstrates why Some Facebook employees are reportedly quitting or asking to switch departments over ethical concerns SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg says he's still the best person to run Facebook after scandals: 'I think life is about learning from mistakes'
Reuters
97 d ago
Long lines, protest before Facebook CEO Zuckerberg testifies
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg will strike a conciliatory tone on Tuesday in testimony before Congress as he looks to fend off the possibility of new regulations as a result of the privacy scandal engulfing his social network.
The Verge
97 d ago
Live blog: Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress
https://live.theverge.com/mark-zuckerberg-congress-testimony-live-blog/
Continue reading…
Fox News
97 d ago
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Senate committees -- live blog
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the Senate Judiciary and Senate Commerce Committees Tuesday to discuss the social media platform's policy on user privacy amid the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The Guardian
97 d ago
Zuckerberg testimony: Facebook CEO says protecting 2018 elections is top priority – live
Facebook and Cambridge Analytica face class action lawsuit
Mark Zuckerberg gives testimony to Senate committees in light of revelations that Cambridge Analytica used Facebook data to influence US voters
‘A positive force’: read Zuckerberg’s prepared testimonyFacebook and Cambridge Analytica face class action lawsuit
12.28am BST
Thanks for following along with our live coverage of Zuckerberg’s trip to Congress. If today’s five hours of Zuck weren’t enough for you, tune in tomorrow morning for Round Two: The House of Representatives.
In the meantime, you can read my colleague David Smith’s full report on the day here .
12.24am BST
Thune is closing things up by again bringing up concerns about conservative bias, and asks Facebook to err on the side of allowing speech.
Grassley jumps in to say that he spoke with another CEO of another platform yesterday who admitted to him that he was a liberal. Grassley is kind of rambling about media bias and partisanship. Continue reading...
Mashable
97 d ago
Live updates from Mark Zuckerberg's Congressional testimony
Mark Zuckerberg's moment is finally here.
On Tuesday, Facebook's CEO will make his long-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill, where he will testify before the Senate's Judiciary and Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committees.
SEE ALSO: 5 questions Mark Zuckerberg should answer at Facebook’s congressional hearings
Zuckerberg will speak about Facebook's data privacy policies, which have come under fire in the wake of Cambridge Analytica , as well as the social network's role in combating election interference. Senators are also likely to ask about a range of other topics, including terrorism, fake news, and the potential for increased regulation. Read more...
More about Tech , Facebook , Mark Zuckerberg , Cambridge Analytica , and Social Media Companies
ABC
97 d ago
What to know about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg is a 33-year-old billionaire and founder of Facebook.
Racked
96 d ago
Why Mark Zuckerberg Wore a Suit for His Congressional Testimony
The hoodie CEO is shifting his style in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach.
For once, Mark Zuckerberg looks like what he is: a businessman. Testifying at a joint hearing before two Senate committees about his company’s role in the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal on Tuesday, the Facebook CEO wore a navy suit, pale blue tie, and crisp white shirt. He returned to the Hill on Wednesday to speak to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, wearing a navy suit, navy tie, and another crisp white shirt.
It’s a big deal for a man whose signature look is deliberately casual — hoodies, fitted T-shirts, and jeans — and who helped usher in the end of business attire in corporate workplaces.
Zuckerberg’s attire is a reminder that even in 2018, when men want to look like adults, they suit up.
Zuckerberg’s hoodies, T-shirts, and jeans are part of larger trends in how men dress Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Mark Zuckerberg’s penchant for hoodies has led to an influx of casual in workplaces. The casual tech bro look Zuckerberg normally favors has been hugely influential. He’s done for hoodies and T-shirts what Kurt Cobain did for flannel. He’s worn them so much, they’re now inextricably linked to tech culture.
Jeans are now commonplace not only in Silicon Valley businesses but in companies nationwide. The swing from business attire to business casual to plain casual has hit suits hard. According to the market research firm Euromonitor, sales of men’s suits in the US fell sharply in 2017, a trend that it has reported for years.
As suits have gone down, luxury hoodies have become a thing. Kanye West’s Yeezy line includes a selection of hoodies that cost nearly $700 . Defending the overpriced sportswear featured in his Yeezy 2 collection , West told Vanity Fair in 2015, “I was so happy to just show so many sweatshirts. It’s as simple as that. I think sweatshirts are the way of the future. ... Sweatshirts are fucking important.”
Zuckerberg’s casual uniform is also part of a larger pattern of powerful men trying to make their lives easier. Wearing essentially the same ensemble day in and day out gives men one less decision to make. During a Facebook town hall in 2014 , Zuckerberg said he has the same clothing on repeat because he wants to limit the time he spends on “frivolous” decisions. The following year, then-President Obama made a similar point, explaining that he didn’t want to think about what he was wearing or eating ; he typically wore either a blue or gray suit. Scientists have even coined a name to describe this phenomenon: decision fatigue.
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a suit. Still, Zuckerberg dresses up when he needs to Although Zuckerberg is now known as the CEO with a penchant for hoodies, he has broken out more formal attire on numerous occasions. He wore a tie to work daily during 2009 . He said:
After the start of the recession in 2008, I wanted to signal to everyone at Facebook that this was a serious year for us. Great companies thrive by investing more heavily while everyone else is cutting back during a recession. But great companies also make sure they’re financially strong and sustainable. My tie was the symbol of how serious and important a year this was, and I wore it every day to show this.
He wore a suit to his 2012 wedding to Priscilla Chan. He’s also broken out suits at his alma mater, Harvard, while accepting prizes, and to meetings with heads of state. In 2014, he incited a bout of pearl-clutching for showing up to the Breakthrough Prize awards in a navy blue tuxedo instead of black. Scandal!
Photo: Paul Marotta/Getty Images Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers the 2017 Harvard commencement address. Last May, Zuckerberg gave the Harvard commencement address in a midnight blue suit and dazzling periwinkle tie. Speaking at the 2016 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in Peru, he wore a slightly wrinkled black suit with a burgundy tie. And at the China Development Forum in Beijing, he skipped the tie completely. He wore a charcoal suit with a white button-down shirt. Accepting the Axel Springer Award in Germany in February 2016, he also suited up sans tie. However, when he’s met with foreign dignitaries like Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Chinese President Xi Jinping, Zuckerberg has gone full-on business professional, tie and all.
While testifying before the Senate, Zuckerberg had little choice but to dress up — though there is no official dress code for committee hearings, business attire is standard in Congress. Lawmakers can’t even wear sportswear to make a political statement. When Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) symbolically wore a hoodie in 2012 after Trayvon Martin’s killing, he was booted from the House floor . And last year, a woman reporter made headlines when she was turned away from the Speaker’s Lobby , near the House chamber, for wearing a sleeveless dress.
Congressional dress standards notwithstanding, it makes sense that Zuckerberg would want to dress up for his hearings. A 2015 study, “ The Cognitive Consequences of Formal Clothing ,” found that dressing up can actually make a person feel like a boss.
“Putting on formal clothes makes us feel powerful, and that changes the basic way we see the world,” study author Abraham Rutchick told the Atlantic .
Photo: Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, arrive for a 2015 state dinner at the White House in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Feeling powerful is an emotion that may prove useful for Zuckerberg, who’s under fire following reports that the data company Cambridge Analytica collected information on 87 million unsuspecting Facebook users. But given the scandal surrounding the social media company he founded, Zuckerberg is mostly in the nation’s capital to play nice — and look it. Getting a haircut and wearing a suit gives the impression that he’s repentant. Just ask any criminal defense lawyer who’s had to make over a client before a trial.
For all the changes in corporate attire in recent years, it’s hard to shake the expectation that a suit projects authority Zuckerberg showed up to the Senate looking exactly how you’d expect anyone testifying before our nation’s leaders would. Yet he can’t shake the conception that he never dresses up. On Monday, President Trump’s chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, lashed out at the Facebook CEO’s style while speaking to a group of White House reporters.
”Is he going to behave like an adult?” Kudlow asked of Zuckerberg. “As a major corporate leader? Or give me this phony bologna, what is it, hoodies and dungarees? What does that kind of signal sell?”
Kudlow’s comments missed the mark on Zuckerberg, but they reveal just how pervasive the idea is that men need to put on a suit to be taken seriously.
Reuters
97 d ago
Facebook CEO Zuckerberg will face tough questions in Senate hearing
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg will strike a conciliatory tone on Tuesday in testimony before Congress as he looks to fend off the possibility of new regulations as a result of the privacy scandal engulfing his social network.
Reuters
97 d ago
Facebook CEO Zuckerberg starts testifying in Senate hearing
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg started testifying before Congress on Tuesday as he looks to fend off the possibility of new regulations as a result of the privacy scandal engulfing his social network.
USA Today
96 d ago
What's at stake for Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg as he testifies for Day 2
As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg comes to Congress to testify before lawmakers, what is at stake for the 2 billion-strong social network.
564 shares
Daily Mail
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg lectured about foreign actors who 'abuse' Facebook
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sat for a high-stakes televised grilling from lawmakers Tuesday and Wednesday in his first ever appearance before Congress.
Business Insider
97 d ago
Facebook is rallying as Mark Zuckerberg testifies to Congress (FB)
Markets Insider
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying before a joint Senate committee on Tuesday. Shares of Facebook were rising after Zuckerberg's testimony began. Follow his testimony on Business Insider's live blog here. Shares of Facebook were up 3.6%, and climbing, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg gets grilled by lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Ahead of the joint hearing of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees regarding Facebook's ongoing privacy scandal stemming from the firm Cambridge Analytica, shares were up 2%. Once Zuckerberg arrived at the US Capitol, shares rallied to fresh session highs. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
NOW WATCH: Wall Street's biggest bull explains why trade war fears are way overblown
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The 50 best places to live in America for 2018 Mark Zuckerberg and his college-sweetheart wife Priscilla Chan are worth billions — see their houses, cars, and travels Facebook traders are bracing for the worst ahead of Mark Zuckerberg's hearing SEE ALSO: LIVE: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is about to testify to Congress
CNBC
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg hints that Facebook has considered a paid version
Zuckerberg testified in Congress on Tuesday in the first of two hearings over data leak issues on Facebook.
TechCrunch
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg: ‘There will always be a version of Facebook that is free’
Today during Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before the Senate , the Facebook CEO reiterated that “there will always be a version of Facebook that is free.”
In the midst of the Cambridge Analytica scandal , in which the user data of up to 87 million people was sold by a third-party developer to Trump Campaign-linked firm Cambridge Analytica, there has been talk of Facebook potentially adding a subscription layer.
The scandal has brought to light the heart of a problem that many have been well aware of: if you’re not buying a product, you are the product.
Last week, when asked if there might be a way for users to opt out of being targeted for ads, Sandberg responded saying they’d have to pay for it.
“We have different forms of opt-out,” Sandberg replied . “We don’t have an opt-out at the highest level. That would be a paid product.”
Our own Josh Constine made an argument that ad-free subscriptions could save Facebook. And while there’s no word on an ad-free subscription, Zuckerberg did at least leave room for it in the future, noting that there will always be a version of Facebook that is free.
“How do you sustain a business model in which users don’t pay for your service?” Senator Orrin Hatch asked Zuckerberg.
“Senator, we run ads.”
Reuters
97 d ago
CEO Zuckerberg says Facebook going through 'philosophical shift'
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told U.S. senators on Tuesday that the company was attempting to change in light of recent criticism, as he attempted to forestall any strict legislation aimed at the world's largest social network.
The Verge
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg isn’t ruling out a paid version of Facebook
Like most things on the internet, Facebook has always been free to users, supported by targeted advertising. But as concerns have grown over data collection, many users have expressed interest in a paid, ad-free version of Facebook — and Mark Zuckerberg may not be opposed to the idea.
In a testimony before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees today, Zuckerberg seemed to leave open the possibility of a paid version of Facebook. The line of questioning came from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who recalled meeting Zuckerberg in 2010 as part of the Senate Republican High Tech Task Force. “You said back then that Facebook would always be free,” Hatch said to Zuckerberg. “Is that still your objective?”
“There will always be a version of...
Continue reading…
CNBC
97 d ago
Someone's dressed as a 'Russian troll' at Zuckerberg's Facebook hearing in the Senate
Consumer activist Amanda Werner is dressed in a turquoise troll wig, Russia flag scarf and belly button jewel.
CNET News
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook has talked to Robert Mueller - CNET
But he didn't want to give details, citing the fact the congressional hearing on Tuesday is open to the public.
Motherboard
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg Says Facebook Will Have AI to Detect Hate Speech In ‘5-10 years’
We hear so often that artificial intelligence is soon—very soon—going to be driving our cars or doing our lawyering that a reality check is sometimes needed. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg let a doozy slip during his testimony on Tuesday in front of a joint Congressional committee that focused on the social network’s data policies.
According to Zuckerberg, Facebook will have effective machine learning tools to automatically detect hate speech in “five to 10 years.” This is unfortunate, because given the circumstances, it’s not entirely clear if Facebook or, frankly, the entire United States will even still exist by then. (For what it’s worth, saying tech is perpetually “five to 10 years” out is a classic Silicon Valley hedge , and two years ago, Zuckerberg said AI could be outperforming humans “in the next five to 10 years.”)
Zuckerberg was responding to a question from Republican Rep. John Thune, who asked what steps Facebook takes to determine hate speech on the platform at present and what some of the challenges are in doing so. In his response, Zuckerberg noted that in Facebook’s early days the company didn’t have AI tools that could automatically flag content, but lately such tools have been implemented. Zuckerberg claimed that more than 90 percent of pro-ISIS or Al Qaeda content is currently automatically flagged by machines , and last year the social network started using automated tools to detect when users may be at risk of self-harm and intervene.
Read More: Facebook’s New Algorithm Combs Posts to Identify Potentially Suicidal Users
“I am optimistic that over a five-to-10-year period, we will have AI tools that can get into some of the linguistic nuances of different types of content to be more accurate in flagging content for our systems, but today we’re not just there on that,” Zuckerberg said. “Until we get it more automated, there’s a higher error rate than I am happy with,” he added.
Facebook’s convoluted policies around hate speech have long haunted the company. Last year, ProPublica— reporting on internal Facebook documents —noted that the company had hundreds of rules that result in "white men" being a protected group but not "black children” at the time. Such policies have resulted in PR disasters like Berkeley, California-based rapper Lil B being temporarily banned for “hate speech.”
If the Facebook founder’s comment is to be believed, then Facebook is resigned to these sorts of problems—or “error rates,” as Zuckerberg put it—continuing until we have effective machine learning, which is apparently not coming until I’m middle-aged and we all work our day jobs in literal data mines while plugged into virtual reality headsets.
And, given all the well-documented issues around bias in machine learning tools, there’s no guarantee it will fix Facebook’s problems anyway. More likely, as with any new technology, it will introduce a whole host of unexpected issues.
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TechCrunch
97 d ago
Facebook share price climbs as Zuckerberg gets grilled by the Senate
Shareholders seemed to have incredibly low expectations of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ability to handle a Senate testimony, because Facebook stock climbed 4.5 percent Tuesday with the bulk of the gains coming during his televised testimony.
Though the markets closed nearly an hour ago, Zuckerberg is still being peppered by Senators in an hours-long testimony session where the group is aiming to hear more from the company’s CEO and founder about data protection in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica controversy.
While there have been tough questions from several senators, rhetoric regarding government regulation of internet companies like Facebook was not overly pronounced in opening statements, though several Senators did directly address it in their questioning.
Zuckerberg testifies at congressional hearings
While Zuckerberg’s apology tour of the Capitol building seems to have largely been devoted to rehashing the major changes they’ve announced in recent days and weeks, he did reveal that the number of Facebook accounts with ties to Russian Intelligence could be in the “tens of thousands,” an admission that greatly exceeds the several hundred that Facebook had previously disclosed.
Facebook’s gains Tuesday brought the company’s share price to close above $165, a number it has not closed above in nearly three weeks. Facebook is still far below the $185 share price it was above before Cambridge Analytica reports were shared from a number of publications in mid-March.
Time
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg’s Testimony Is Bringing Out the Internet’s Best Facebook Jokes
As Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress on Tuesday, those watching the proceedings flocked to social media to crack jokes about the Facebook CEO .
Zuckerberg is facing a two-day congressional inquisition following revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm affiliated with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, gathered personal information from 87 million Facebook users to try to influence elections.
This is the first time Zuck has appeared before Congress personally — having previously sent deputies to represent him on Capitol Hill — and the internet was clearly ready to take full advantage of the live public hearing.
After senators began questioning Zuckerberg, some Twitter users were quick to poke fun at the stereotype that older people don’t completely understand his social network.
“Mr. Zuckerberg, a magazine I recently opened came with a floppy disk offering me 30 free hours of something called America On-Line,” journalist Dave Itzkoff captioned a photoset of Sen. Chuck Grassley interrogating Zuck. “Is that the same as Facebook?”
“Mr. Zuckerberg, a magazine i recently opened came with a floppy disk offering me 30 free hours of something called America On-Line. Is that the same as Facebook?” pic.twitter.com/U7pqpUhEhQ
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) April 10, 2018
Others took jabs at the CEO himself.
me when I realize my actions have a consequence pic.twitter.com/kNx4rL2uGl
— Amber Discko (@amberdiscko) April 10, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg’s manner has always reminded me of someone, but I could never quite grasp hold of it.
Just now it hit me, watching him testify about data. pic.twitter.com/4Zs2eGlsHD
— Matthew Teague (@MatthewTeague) April 10, 2018
Deer. Headlights. 📷: @somogettynews pic.twitter.com/mxzVlhnd4X
— Getty Images News (@GettyImagesNews) April 10, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg using a booster seat to testify before Congress is the only meme you need today. pic.twitter.com/FZl93tFWOL
— Meme Bot (@theMemesBot) April 11, 2018
See some more reactions below.
zuckerberg: hello senator sir
senator: *lowers glasses, squints at phone* how can i tell if my granddaughter blocked me
senator: *lowers glasses, squints at phone* how can i tell if my granddaughter blocked me
— jaboukie young-white (@jaboukie) April 10, 2018
When you poke her but she doesn’t poke back. pic.twitter.com/yxJ07O3mw3
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) April 10, 2018
Congress just needs to keep Zuckerberg busy long enough for Sandra Bullock to take down Facebook pic.twitter.com/F3BCfj2esj
— Ira Madison III (@ira) April 10, 2018
WHY WON'T MY GRANDSON ACCEPT MY FRIEND REQUEST? pic.twitter.com/WEXonYDzKS
— David Mack (@davidmackau) April 10, 2018
you should have to prove you can successfully post something to FB before getting to question zuck
— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) April 10, 2018
MySpace right now #Facebook pic.twitter.com/HhntxDPPZn
— Remington Crowder (@RemCrowder) April 10, 2018
SEN: What happened to Angry Birds
ZUCK: That's not wh—
SEN: It was a thing then it kind of stopped. I would still like to play it but I changed phones.
ZUCK: [lawyer whispers in ear for 10 minutes] OK
— ☕netw3rk (@netw3rk) April 10, 2018
really good that the people grilling zuck on his vast and complex data collection platform cant log onto wifi without help
— ☕netw3rk (@netw3rk) April 10, 2018
“Mr. Zuckerberg, can you explain how I’ve been on Facebook for ten years and yet still do not have one friend request accepted?” #ZuckerbergTestimony pic.twitter.com/gPJu9V76l1
— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) April 10, 2018
Zuckerberg should be questioned by the staffers than run the Senators Facebook pages.
— Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 10, 2018
"Mr. Zuckerberg, I keep seeing these Candy Crush requests and i complete them but they then won't go away. I tried having my grandson fix it for me but they just keep coming back. I don't want to bother him again… can you please help me?" pic.twitter.com/Mse7ae8KrF
— Kofie (@KofieYeboah) April 10, 2018
ZUCKERBERG: im ready to answer any questions u might have about facebook
84-YEAR-OLD SENATOR: excellent. mr zuckerberg my farmville farm needs more pigs but i cannot figure out where to purchase them
— Bob Vulfov (@bobvulfov) April 10, 2018
Zuckerberg on his Facebook profile vs Zuckerberg at this Congressional hearing pic.twitter.com/P3bi2Ry5r4
— Tim Mak (@timkmak) April 10, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg is now living out every young person's worst nightmare: trying to explain how tech stuff works to the nation's elderly
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) April 10, 2018
CNBC
97 d ago
'You don't think you're a monopoly?' Read Sen. Graham's questioning of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg is testifying at a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees Tuesday.
Mashable
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg hints at a paid version of Facebook
Among the "Yes, Senators" and "No, Senators" in Mark Zuckerberg's congressional testimony, the Facebook CEO may have dropped a breadcrumb about a big change for his company: a paid version of Facebook.
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) grilled Mark Zuckerberg about how Facebook could both safeguard users' data and sustain its ad-based business model as a free service for users. Hatch asked Zuckerberg whether Facebook would always be free, and Zuckerberg responded "Yes, there will always be a version of Facebook that is free."
SEE ALSO: Live updates from Mark Zuckerberg's Congressional testimony
Did you catch that? A version of Facebook that is free. Meaning that there could be another version of Facbook that is paid. Read more...
More about Facebook , Ads , Mark Zuckerberg , Orrin Hatch , and Cambridge Analytica
USA Today
97 d ago
Senators grill Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook basics
During a Senate hearing with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, a few of the questions asked by senators seemed to require an explanation of the basics.
Business Insider
97 d ago
During his Senate hearing, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked about an infamous ex-employee: Palmer Luckey (FB)
Who is Palmer Luckey? And why is his name coming up during a Senate hearing with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over privacy concerns in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal ?
Business Insider
During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Senator Ted Cruz questioned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about hiring and firing decisions based on political affiliation. Among the questions, Cruz asked Zuckerberg about the case of Palmer Luckey — the Oculus VR co-founder and Oculus Rift creator who no longer works at Facebook . Luckey was outed as having funded an anti-Hillary Clinton meme group , and he left Facebook with little explanation about six months later. Zuckerberg didn't comment on specifics of Luckey's firing, but did say that it wasn't due "to a political view." Who is Palmer Luckey? And why is his name coming up during a Senate hearing with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over privacy concerns in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal ?
In case you've already forgotten, Luckey is the charismatic entrepreneur who once graced the cover of Time Magazine — the poster boy for the future of virtual reality, made real by his invention: The "Oculus Rift." Facebook liked the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset so much that it bought the company that Luckey co-founded, Oculus VR, in 2014 for $2 billion . See the rest of the story at Business Insider
NOW WATCH: A neuroscientist explains why reality may just be a hallucination
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Mark Zuckerberg just renounced a core piece of Silicon Valley wisdom — and it could come back to bite Facebook A former congressional staffer says there are two kinds of questions lawmakers should ask Mark Zuckerberg when he testifies Mark Zuckerberg plans to tell Congress that as long as he's CEO, advertisers won't take priority over Facebook's users SEE ALSO: How Palmer Luckey, the tech CEO who sold his startup to Facebook for $2 billion, became the company's black sheep
TechCrunch
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg: “We do not sell data to advertisers”
While many of us in the tech world are familiar with Facebook’s business model, there is a common misconception among people that Facebook collects information about you and then sells that information to advertisers.
Zuckerberg wants everyone (especially the U.S. Senate) to know that’s not the case, and has laid forth the most simple example to explain it.
During his testimony, the Facebook CEO clarified to Senator John Cornyn that Facebook does not sell data.
There is a very common misconception that we sell data to advertisers, and we do not sell data to advertisers. What we allow is for advertisers to tell us who they want to reach and then we do the placement. So, if an advertiser comes to us and says, ‘Alright, I’m a ski shop and I want to sell skis to women,’ then we might have some sense because people shared skiing related content or said they were interested in that. They shared whether they’re a woman. And then we can show the ads to the right people without that data ever changing hands and going to the advertiser. That’s a very fundamental part of how our model works and something that is often misunderstood.
While, again, this may seem straightforward to many of us, Zuckerberg found himself having to explain more than once that Facebook does not sell data during his Senate testimony.
CNET News
96 d ago
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg feels the burn in Congress hearings - CNET
The CEO sits through hours of questions as lawmakers slam him during two congressional appearances this week.
CNET News
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg memes are best part of his Facebook testimony - CNET
The internet jokes about the Facebook CEO looking like Star Trek's Commander Data, his "booster seat," AI dreams and senators who don't understand tech.
Ad Week
97 d ago
5 Things We Learned From Mark Zuckerberg During Day 1 of His Congressional Testimony
This afternoon, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent several hours answering questions from dozens of U.S. senators in Washington, D.C. The questions varied from explaining the basics of ad-tech to answering whether Facebook would support bills strengthening privacy laws. Zuckerberg's testimony before Congress comes nearly a month after Facebook banned the British data firm Cambridge Analytica...
CNN
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg's Senate testimony in two minutes
Here are the highlights from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Congressional testimony on privacy issues and election meddling.
TechCrunch
97 d ago
Zuckerberg’s boring testimony is a big win for Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg ran his apology scripts, trotted out his lists of policy fixes and generally dulled the Senate into submission. And that constitutes success for Facebook.
Zuckerberg testified before the joint Senate judiciary and commerce committee today, capitalizing on the lack of knowledge of the politicians and their surface-level questions. Half the time, Zuckerberg got to simply paraphrase blog posts and statements he’d already released. Much of the other half, he merely explained how basic Facebook functionality works.
The senators hadn’t done their homework, but he had. All that training with D.C. image consultants paid off.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before a joint hearing of the US Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)
Sidestepping any gotcha questions or meme-worthy sound bites, Zuckerberg’s repetitive answers gave the impression that there’s little left to uncover, whether or not that’s true. He made a convincing argument that Facebook is atoning for its sins, is cognizant of its responsibility and has a concrete plan in place to improve data privacy.
With just five minutes per senator, and them each with a queue of questions to get through, few focused on the tougher queries, and even fewer had time for follow-ups to dig for real answers.
Did Facebook cover up the Cambridge Analytica scandal or decide against adding privacy protections earlier to protect its developer platform? Is it a breach of trust for Zuckerberg and other executives to have deleted their Facebook messages out of recipients’ inboxes ? How has Facebook used a lack of data portability to inhibit the rise of competitors? Why doesn’t Instagram let users export their data the way they can from Facebook?
The public didn’t get answers to any of those questions today. Just Mark’s steady voice regurgitating Facebook’s talking points. Investors rewarded Facebook for its monotony with a 4.5 percent share price boost.
That’s not to say today’s hearing wasn’t effective. It’s just that the impact was felt before Zuckerberg waded through a hundred photographers to take his seat in the Senate office.
Facebook knew this day was coming, and worked to build Zuckerberg a fortress of facts he could point to no matter what he got asked:
Was Facebook asleep at the wheel during the 2016 election? Yesterday it revealed it had deleted the accounts of Russian GRU intelligence operatives in June 2016. How will Facebook prevent this from happening again? Last week it announced plans to require identity and location verification for any political advertiser or popular Facebook Page, and significantly restricted its developer platform. Is Facebook taking this seriously? Zuckerberg wrote in his prepared testimony for today that Facebook is doubling its security and content moderation team from 10,000 to 20,000, and that “protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits.” Is Facebook sorry? “We didn’t take a broad enough view of what our responsibility is and that was a huge mistake. That was my mistake,” Zuckerberg has said, over and over. Facebook may never have made such sweeping changes and apologies had it not had today and tomorrow’s testimony on the horizon. But this defensive strategy also led to few meaningful disclosures, to the detriment of the understanding of the public and the Senate — and to the benefit of Facebook.
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 10: Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. Zuckerberg, 33, was called to testify after it was reported that 87 million Facebook users had their personal information harvested by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm linked to the Trump campaign. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
We did learn that Facebook is working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller on his investigation into election interference. We learned that Zuckerberg thinks it was a mistake not to suspend the advertising account of Cambridge Analytica when Facebook learned it had bought user data from Dr. Aleksandr Kogan. And we learned that the senate will “haul in” Cambridge Analytica for a future hearing about data privacy.
None of those are earth-shaking.
Perhaps the only fireworks during the testimony came when Senator Ted Cruz laid into Zuckerberg over the Gizmodo report citing that Facebook’s trending topics curators suppressed conservative news trends. Cruz badgered Zuckerberg about whether he believes Facebook is politically neutral, whether Facebook has ever taken down Pages from liberal groups like Planned Parenthood or MoveOn.org, if he knows the political leanings of Facebook’s content moderators and whether Facebook fired Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey over his [radical conservative] political views.
Zuckerberg maintained that he and Facebook are neutral, but that last question was the only one of the day that seemed to visibly perturb him. “That is a specific personnel matter than seems like it would be inappropriate…” Zuckerberg said before Cruz interrupted, pushing the CEO to exasperatedly respond, “Well then I can confirm that it was not because of a political view.” It should be noted that Cruz has received numerous campaign donations from Luckey.
Full exchange between Senator @tedcruz and Mark Zuckerberg where Senator Ted Cruz questions the Facebook CEO about the censorship of Conservatives on his platform. pic.twitter.com/c6d7jwDbnJ
— The Columbia Bugle (@ColumbiaBugle) April 10, 2018
This was the only time Zuckerberg seemed flapped, because he knows the stakes of the public perception of Facebook’s political leanings. Zuckerberg, many Facebook employees and Facebook’s home state of California are all known to lean left. But if the company itself is seen that way, conservative users could flee, shattering Facebook’s network effect. Yet again, Zuckerberg nimbly avoided getting cornered here, and was aided by the bell signaling the end of Cruz’s time. He never noticeably raised his voice, lashed back at the senators or got off message.
By the conclusion of the five hours of questioning, the senators themselves were admitting they hadn’t watched the day’s full testimony. Viewers at home had likely returned to their lives. Even the press corps’ eyes were glazing over. But Zuckerberg was prepared for the marathon. He maintained pace through the finish line. And he made it clear why marathons aren’t TV spectator sports.
The question is no longer what revelations would come from Mr. Zuckerberg going to Washington. Tomorrow’s testimony is likely to go similarly. It’s whether Facebook can coherently execute on the data privacy promises it made leading up to today. This will be a “never-ending battle” as Zuckerberg said, dragging out over many years. And again, that’s in Facebook’s interest. Because in the meantime, everyone’s going back to scrolling their feeds.
CNN
97 d ago
How the Senate's tech illiteracy saved Mark Zuckerberg
All the coverage leading up to Mark Zuckerberg's first of two days of congressional testimony on Tuesday suggested he was in for a real grilling. The rare Washington appearance comes as the Facebook CEO's company finds itself in the midst of massive questions about data privacy and its broader role in American life.
CNN
97 d ago
Zuckerberg's Senate testimony in 2 minutes
Here are the highlights from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's congressional testimony on privacy issues and election meddling.
The Verge
97 d ago
Read Mark Zuckerberg’s notes from today’s Facebook privacy Senate hearing
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress today in a marathon five-hour session about the ongoing Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal . In addition to discussing that situation, and how as many as 87 million users had their information misused by the data mining firm, the conversation also touched on Facebook’s role and responsibility in the world as a news source and a massively influential tool for democracy and communication.
While there were few bombshell revelations, Zuckerberg did answer a far-reaching and diverse set of questions ranging from whether Facebook is a monopoly to whether the company would ever consider an ad-free paid version. As part of his appearance on Capitol Hill today, Zuckerberg brought along...
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The Verge
97 d ago
The 5 biggest takeaways from Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before the Senate
Mark Zuckerberg made his highly anticipated debut before Congress today during a marathon five-hour hearing before a joint session of the Commerce and Judiciary committees. Zuckerberg remained calm and level-headed throughout, and senators were mostly polite and deferential as they sought to understand how Facebook had inadvertently allowed the profiles of up to 87 million people to be collected by the political data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica.
In the weeks leading up to the hearing, Facebook made a series of announcements designed to demonstrate that it took the data leak seriously and was working to prevent it from happening again. Zuckerberg referred repeatedly today to these changes, which include making privacy shortcuts easier...
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CNBC
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg's notes for his Senate hearing, revealed
An Associated Press photographer captured a photograph of the talking points Mark Zuckerberg used for his U.S. Senate hearing on Tuesday.
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Fox News
97 d ago
'Army' of 100 Zuckerberg cutouts protests Facebook CEO on Capitol Hill
An “army of 100 life-sized” cutouts of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg were placed outside the lawn of Capitol Hill on Tuesday in protest of “disinformation” ahead of the tech giant’s congressional hearing.
WIRED
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg Makes Facebook Privacy Sound So Easy
[In his testimony to Congress, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly misrepresented the amount of control Facebook users really have over their data.](https://www.wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-congress-day-one)
The Daily Beast
97 d ago
Trevor Noah Roasts ‘Robot’ Mark Zuckerberg’s Senate Testimony
Comedy Central
After it was revealed that the Cambridge Analytica data scandal may have affected up to 87 million Facebook users , Trevor Noah said, “Everyone wanted answers.”
“And you could tell that, because everyone was posting about it on Facebook,” the Daily Show host said Tuesday night. “And when the American people are deeply concerned about something, you know what Congress does: nothing.”
But in this case, he explained, they did summon Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to answer their questions .
Read more at The Daily Beast.
1128 shares
Futurism
97 d ago
Everything You Need to Know From Mark Zuckerberg’s Congressional Testimony: Day 1
You’ve heard the rumblings over the years: Might Mark Zuckerberg make it to Washington ? We’re pretty sure this isn’t the type of visit he had in mind. In the wake of Facebook’s involvement in the data-sharing scandal , Zuckerberg testified today before a joint session of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee (at 10:00 ET tomorrow morning, he’ll be in the hot seat again, this time before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce).
Zuckerberg already shared his written testimony , but during today’s live-streamed hearing , 44 Senators had five minutes each to ask him questions directly. The whole thing took about five hours. Here are the topics they batted around the most, and what both the Senators and Facebook’s CEO had to say about them.
Consumer Privacy “If you and other social media companies don’t get your act in order, none of us are going to have any privacy any more,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said during his opening statement. Given the nature of the Cambridge Analytica scandal (reminder: the third-party app used a quiz to get ahold of user data, as well as that of all of their friends), it’s not surprising that privacy was a hot topic throughout the hearing.
Lawmakers tried to suss out exactly what Facebook knew about the Cambridge Analytical scandal, most of which was already covered in Zuckerberg’s previous statements on the topic. They also asked if he’d react differently if the data scraping happened today (yes, he would).
At several points throughout the testimony, Zuckerberg attempted to clarify exactly what data Facebook collects and what it doesn’t. He frequently emphasized that Facebook does not sell user data. It collects data, and then gives advertisers access to the Facebook users that are most relevant for their products or services.
In one of the most overtly critical moments of the day, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) questioned outright whether Zuckerberg had the “will” to help Congress solve the problem of inadequate privacy protections.
Facebook’s Content Zuckerberg told Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), “I agree that we’re responsible for the content [on Facebook],” and a number of questions focused specifically on what kind of “content” actually showed up on the social media site.
Several senators asked how Facebook is addressing hate speech. Zuckerberg noted that the platform is creating helpful artificial intelligence (AI) tools and hiring more native speakers to review content in non-English speaking nations.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took a different line of questioning (perhaps not surprising since, as several have pointed out , Cruz himself was working with Cambridge Analytica), noting that the platform seems to express a bias against conservative stories and users.
“I am very committed to making sure Facebook is a platform for all ideas,” Zuckerberg responded. Facebook attempts to police content that can cause “real-world harm,” such as terrorism, self-harm, or election interference, according to Zuckerberg.
Beyond that, though, the platform’s goal is “to allow people to have as much expression as possible.”
Tech Regulations Sen. John Thune (R-SD) noted in his opening remarks that lawmakers may soon need to take more control in the tech industry instead of letting the companies mostly regulate themselves.
When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked Zuckerberg if Facebook would “welcome regulation,” Zuckerberg said, “I think, if it’s the right regulation, then yes.”
As for what those that regulation might be, Zuckerberg told Graham he would “absolutely” work with lawmakers on crafting it, and that his team would follow up after (this, perhaps, was Zuckerberg’s most-often repeated phrase of the afternoon).
He later told Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) that a rule requiring Facebook to notify users of a breach within 72 hours “makes sense” to him. He also supports having a law that makes “opt in” the standard for data sharing.
The Best of the Rest Here’s a potpourri of things that might have come up less frequently, but were still significant during Zuckerberg’s testimony:
User Trust: Sen. Thune questioned why users should trust Facebook, asking Zuckerberg, “After more than a decade of promises to do better, how is today’s apology different?” In response, Zuckerberg noted Facebook’s recent decision to take a “more active view in policing the ecosystem.” He said people will have to judge the company by the results of those efforts. Election Interference: When asked what Facebook is doing to prevent foreign interference in U.S. elections, Zuckerberg once again referenced the company’s AI tools. He noted that Facebook has used the tools to identify fake accounts, helping prevent interference in the French presidential election and others since the 2016 presidential election. Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel: The counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has contacted Facebook, Zuckerberg said. Mueller’s team hasn’t interviewed Zuckerberg directly, but others at Facebook have spoken to the investigators. Android Phones: When asked about Facebook’s phone-scraping scandal , Zuckerberg testified that Facebook can’t collect users’ call and text history through its Messenger app unless the user opts in. Facebook’s Future: A “version of Facebook” will always be free, according to Zuckerberg. Tune in tomorrow for Zuckerberg’s round 2 in the ring with the U.S. Senate.
The post Everything You Need to Know From Mark Zuckerberg’s Congressional Testimony: Day 1 appeared first on Futurism .
New York Times
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg Testifies on Facebook Before Skeptical Lawmakers
The Facebook chief executive endured almost five hours of questioning from lawmakers who appeared uncomfortable with the technology company’s dominance.
USA Today
97 d ago
Senate's grilling of Mark Zuckerberg went nowhere
Cambridge Analytica hearing probably did more to reassure Facebook users than to take the company to task: Our view
USA Today
96 d ago
1177 shares
The Guardian
97 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook hearing was an utter sham | Zephyr Teachout
Now that the initial show trial is done, we need the real deal
Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook CEO faces second day of questioning – liveOn Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg was in the hot seat. Cameras surrounded him. The energy in the room – and on Twitter – was electric. At last, the reluctant CEO is made to answer some questions !
Except it failed. It was designed to fail. It was a show designed to get Zuckerberg off the hook after only a few hours in Washington DC. It was a show that gave the pretense of a hearing without a real hearing. It was designed to deflect and confuse.
Continue reading...
BBC
96 d ago
Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and US senators inspire endless memes
Mark Zuckerberg's appearance in front of US senators entertains Twitter.
CNBC
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg's testimony to Congress: Here are the key points you need to know
Mark Zuckerberg answered questions on how Facebook will handle future election and and how it should be regulated.
Reuters
96 d ago
Second day of U.S. congressional hearings awaits Facebook CEO Zuckerberg
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg started a second day of testimony on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, facing more questions from lawmakers about data privacy at the world's largest social media network.
4826 shares
Daily Mail
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg sits on extra cushion for testimony
Mark Zuckerberg spent Tuesday afternoon being grilled by senators from the comfort of a black leather arm chair topped up with an extra inches-thick black cushion.
The New Yorker
96 d ago
What Was Missing from Mark Zuckerberg’s First Day of Congressional Testimony
Adrian Chen examines Mark Zuckerberg’s first day of testimony on Capitol Hill, in which he spoke to members of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees.
New York Times
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg’s Own Data Disclosed After Senate Hearing: His Notes
Photographs showed two pages the Facebook chief executive used to prepare his testimony on Capitol Hill, including answers to unasked questions.
CNET News
96 d ago
Questions to Mark Zuckerberg show many senators don't get Facebook - CNET
Tuesday's five-hour hearing highlighted one thing: Relatively few senators understand Facebook's business.
The Verge
96 d ago
Here’s how much Facebook donated to every lawmaker questioning Mark Zuckerberg this week
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce today, fresh off the heels of a grueling five-hour joint session before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees yesterday. In total, Zuckerberg will face questions from nearly 100 legislators, and many of those legislators have received thousands of dollars from the company Zuckerberg runs.
Over the last 12 years, Facebook has spent $7 million in campaign contributions. Historically, Facebook has donated slightly more to Democrats than Republicans, but overall, the platform’s political footprint is small in Washington, DC relative to its market cap, which is currently calculated at about $400 billion. That’s not unusual for...
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ABC
96 d ago
House grills Zuckerberg on Facebook data breach for five hours
Zuckerberg faced five more hours of questioning Wednesday from House members.
Mashable
96 d ago
Someone Photoshopped Mark Zuckerberg as Data from 'Star Trek' and it's incredible
More about Mark Zuckerberg , Star Trek , Culture , and Web Culture
This week on the internet, we've collectively ripped Mark Zuckerberg as he attempts to save Facebook from public scrutiny by the U.S. government.
Zuck's two-day stint testifying in front of Congress this week after the Cambridge Analytica data scandal has overwhelming dominated the tech news cycle. So naturally, there were tons of memes.
While robot Mark Zuckerborg has always been a popular joke among the Zuckmemes community , a common theme that emerged during his testimony Tuesday was that he looked an awful lot like Data from Star Trek. You know, the android.
Mark Zuckerberg’s manner has always reminded me of someone, but I could never quite grasp hold of it
Just now it hit me, watching him testify about data pic.twitter.com/4Zs2eGlsHD
Just now it hit me, watching him testify about data pic.twitter.com/4Zs2eGlsHD
— Matthew Teague (@MatthewTeague) April 10, 2018 Read more...
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CNBC
96 d ago
Watch Mark Zuckerberg's second day of testimony before Congress
Zuckerberg is testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday.
CNBC
96 d ago
House members will likely be more prepared to grill Mark Zuckerberg than the Senate was
The Facebook founder and CEO spent nearly five hours addressing members of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees Tuesday.
Mashable
96 d ago
Live updates from Mark Zuckerberg's Congressional testimony: Day 2
On Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced over five hours of questions from Senators who demonstrated a limited grasp of how the internet works . Today, he's back on Capitol Hill to dish about the same topics in the House of Representatives.
SEE ALSO: Live updates from Mark Zuckerberg's Congressional testimony
In a hearing entitled "Facebook: Transparency and Use of Consumer Data," Zuckerberg will speak with members of the Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Representative Greg Walden (R-OR).
Zuckerberg presented largely the same opening remarks for the House as he did for the Senate, reiterating that Facebook, erm, faces "a number of important issues around privacy, safety, and democracy." Read more...
More about Facebook , Congress , Mark Zuckerberg , House Of Representatives , and Cambridge Analytica
The Verge
96 d ago
Live blog: Mark Zuckerberg’s Congress testimony, day 2
https://live.theverge.com/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-congress-testimony-live-blog-stream/
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BBC
96 d ago
Facebook's Zuckerberg says his data was harvested
The chief executive also tells Congress that Facebook may take action against Cambridge University.
Business Insider
96 d ago
How Facebook makes money from your data, in Mark Zuckerberg's words (FB)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress for over five hours on Wednesday, where he answered questions from senators on a broad range of subjects. During an exchange with Senator John Cornyn, Zuckerberg laid out a simple explanation for how Facebook makes money with user data. Zuckerberg's explanation is a concise walkthrough of how your data is turned into profit.
You're forgiven if you didn't watch all five-plus hours of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg answering questions during a joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees hearing on Tuesday.
You're forgiven if you didn't watch all five-plus hours of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg answering questions during a joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees hearing on Tuesday.
Even if you were watching, it's entirely likely that you missed a crucial, brief segment around the two-hour mark, where Senator John Cornyn asked Zuckerberg about how Facebook handles ex-user data. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
NOW WATCH: A neuroscientist explains why reality may just be a hallucination
See Also:
During his Senate hearing, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked about an infamous ex-employee: Palmer Luckey Cambridge Analytica could have accessed private Facebook messages between 1,500 users and their friends Mark Zuckerberg just renounced a core piece of Silicon Valley wisdom — and it could come back to bite Facebook SEE ALSO: Facebook drops a bombshell and says most of its 2 billion users may have had their personal data scraped
DON'T MISS: Here are all the questions Mark Zuckerberg couldn't answer during this week's Congressional hearings
New York Times
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg Testimony: Day 2 Brings Tougher Questioning
Mr. Zuckerberg testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on his second and final day of congressional testimony over Facebook’s handling of user data.
TechCrunch
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg’s data was collected by third parties
In questioning before the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce today , Mark Zuckerberg said that his personal Facebook data was harvested as part of the sweep of personal data that was used by third parties like Cambridge Analytica .
As part of a fiery 4 minute round of questioning, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (who represents Silicon Valley) asked Zuckerberg “Was your data included in the data sold to the malicious third parties? Your personal data?”
Zuckerberg replied “Yes.”
It’s the first instance (that I know of) where Zuckerberg has said that he was impacted directly by Facebook’s own privacy violations.
USA Today
96 d ago
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says his data was exposed in Cambridge Analytica leak
The Facebook CEO made the admission during questioning on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
Mashable
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg admits his personal data was compromised by 'malicious' actors
More about Facebook , Video , Mark Zuckerberg , Cambridge Analytica , and Tech
Read more...
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Reuters
96 d ago
Facebook CEO says his own data was shared by Cambridge Analytica
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday told lawmakers he was among the 87 million Facebook Inc users whose data was improperly shared with a political consultancy, but rejected suggestions that users do not have enough control over their data on the world's largest social media network.
Gawker Media
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg Says His Data Was Sold to Third Parties, Too
Congresswoman Anna Eshoo just asked Mark Zuckerberg a really great question. Was Zuck’s own personal data sold to third parties like Cambridge Analytica? The one word answer: Yes.
Read more...
Motherboard
96 d ago
Let’s Talk About Mark Zuckerberg’s Claim that Facebook 'Doesn’t Sell Data'
In case you haven’t heard, Facebook does not sell data. At least, that’s what Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg has been adamantly reiterating during his hearings with Congress on data privacy this week.
This is, of course, technically true. It’s also an expert-level demonstration of hair-splitting.
Tuesday, during his five-hour hearing with Senators, Zuckerberg repeated the claim eight separate times . On Wednesday, it popped up again just 20 minutes into the hearing.
“There's a very common misperception about Facebook—that we sell data to advertisers. And we do not sell data to advertisers. We don't sell data to anyone,” Zuckerberg testified on Tuesday. “What we allow is for advertisers to tell us who they want to reach, and then we do the placement.”
But as Representative Greg Walden, the chair of the the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, pointed out on Wednesday, user data is how Facebook makes money even if it’s not selling the data outright.
“I understand that Facebook does not sell user data, per se, in the traditional sense,” Walden said. “But it’s also just as true that Facebook’s user data is probably the most valuable thing about Facebook—in fact it may be the only truly valuable thing about Facebook.”
As noble as it may seem that Facebook isn’t selling your private data on an open market, the reality is that it serves Facebook to keep that data under lock and key. It’s valuable, and by not allowing other entities access to it, Facebook can monetize that same data over and over again. If it sold the data to an advertiser, that data would lose some of its value.
There’s also the fact that third-party apps can gain access to this data and, as we’ve learned, sell it. With Cambridge Analytica, a third party gained access to user data and then gave or sold it to the data analytics company; there are other examples of third-party apps selling Facebook data to data brokers , which can then reuse it on Facebook and elsewhere. Even if Facebook wasn’t doing the selling in those cases, it lost control of user data and allowed it to be sold.
The truth is that the data users provide to Facebook is one of its most valuable resources. It is collected, stored, and analyzed so that the company can profit from it, and as the Cambridge Analytica scandal has revealed, many Facebook users were unaware of this fact. One of the biggest questions of the hearings has been why Facebook didn’t do more to make it clear to its users how it all worked, a question to which Zuckerberg hasn’t yet had a concise answer. Instead, he’s been focusing on repeating a line meant to assuage fears, because Facebook doesn’t sell your data. But it certainly profits from it.
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Business Insider
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg was among the 87 million people whose data was compromised by Cambridge Analytica
Carolyn Kaster/AP
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday, to explain the role his company played in the improper handling of user data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. During the questioning, Zuckerberg confirmed that his data was among the 87 million affected by Cambridge Analytica, although Zuckerberg didn't specify whether he downloaded the app himself or whether it was through a friend. Not even Facebook's CEO was safe in the Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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CNET News
96 d ago
Zuckerberg's Facebook data was sold to Cambridge Analytica, too - CNET
Even Facebook's CEO wasn't safe from the massive data grab by "malicious third parties."
The Verge
96 d ago
Zuckerberg says Facebook will extend European data protections worldwide — kind of
In today’s hearing before the House Committee on Commerce and Energy, Mark Zuckerberg stated that the changes Facebook is making in response to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be available worldwide. Zuckerberg made a commitment to not only provide the same privacy controls but making the same kinds of disclosures and treating users’ data the same. The GDPR imposes requirements on how user data is collected, and how user data must be deleted at the user’s request. However, only moments after giving a clear yes, he seemed to equivocate yet again.
“Facebook has committed to abiding by [the GDPR] in Europe and you face large penalties if they don’t,” said Rep. Gene Green (D-TX) in the hearing. “In recent...
Continue reading…
The New Yorker
96 d ago
The Zuckerberg Testimony: A Poem
Nathan Heller offers a Chaucerian summary of the first day of Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress about Facebook.
CNET News
96 d ago
Facebook's CEO runs circles around the Senate (The 3:59, Ep. 384) - CNET
During testimony on Capitol Hill, Mark Zuckerberg talks regulation, ads and Cambridge Analytica.
Fox News
96 d ago
Facebook might have 29,000 data points on you, but Mark Zuckerberg doesn't really know
It’s well known that Facebook collects a voluminous amount of data on its 2.2 billion users—but CEO Mark Zuckerberg could not confirm exactly how many data points the social network collects.
WIRED
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg Is Revealing Facebook’s Terrible Power in Congress
Mark Zuckerberg's testimony is not just about Cambridge Analytica. He's answering for the un-checked influence that Facebook wields—on its users, and the world.
TechRadar
96 d ago
Even Mark Zuckerberg's personal data was obtained by Cambridge Analytica
After Facebook revealed that Cambridge Analytica (CA), AggregateIQ and other companies had improperly collected data on 87 million Facebook users , people around the world waited in uncomfortable anticipation for a notification from Facebook that their personal data had been acquired and sold by Cambridge Analytica.
As it turns out, CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself may have gotten one of those automated warnings, because his personal data was included in CA's roundup, too.
During Zuckerberg's second day of questioning on Capitol Hill, California Democratic Representative Anna Eshoo asked, "Was your personal data included in the CA breach?"
"Yes," Zuckerberg simply replied.
Zuckerberg didn't elaborate more than that during the exchange with Eshoo, including how much of his personal data CA obtained.
The notification that up to 87 million users should have received this week
Unless Zuckerberg himself took the infamous “thisisyourdigitallife” quiz , which we find to be unlikely, the CEO is probably Facebook friends with someone who did take the quiz.
So, CA may have obtained Zuckerberg’s data through the privacy loophole that his own company left open.
Lots of questions, unsatisfying answers When Zuckerberg finally responded to the CA scandal a few weeks ago, he promised his company would take “responsibility” to ensure that “there aren't any other Cambridge Analyticas out there,”, and to ensure “transparency” about future fixes.
But when faced with Congressional questions, Zuckerberg has been anything but transparent about how much responsibility his company should face for the ongoing scandal, which has led to some awkward exchanges.
Representative Eshoo, following up on her question about Zuckerberg’s personal data, asked if he is “willing to change your business model in the interest of protecting individual privacy?” Zuckerberg responded, “I’m not sure what that means.”
When New York Representative Paul Tonko asked if Facebook should “bear the liability for the misuse of people’s data”, Zuckerberg responded that the company takes “responsibility”, but refused to claim his company was liable, stating CA was solely at fault.
In other words, Zuckerberg has taken some blame, but he doesn’t want his company to be sued for its actions (or inaction). He just want to self-regulate problems as they arise.
Colorado Representative Diana DeGette listed out several other infractions and lawsuits Facebook has faced, including its 2011 FTC settlement settlement to protect user privacy, and asked if Facebook has been punished financially for its past mistakes. Zuckerberg responded that he couldn’t remember.
"We continue to have these abuses and these data breaches, but at the same time, it doesn't seem like future activities are prevented," DeGette responded.
She said that “robust penalties” for breaches like Cambridge Analytica’s could be put in place, even for “first-time violations”.
Want to delete Facebook? Here's how
Ink
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg Just Proved to Marketers That Data Isn't Everything
You've probably heard that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying before Congress this week. The testimony covers the Russia-linked Internet Research Agency's misinformation campaign and Cambridge Analytica scandal. What you might not know is that Facebook is the least-trusted major tech company, by far. In large part, that is because of the way Facebook invades user privacy to target advertising.
Mashable
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook testimony turned into a lesson of how the internet works
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was supposed to face a grilling by members of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday and he (kind of) did. Since most of the Senators are not exactly digital natives, some questions proved to be quite revealing of their knowledge on how Facebook's services work. Read more...
More about Facebook , Mashable Video , Congress , Data , and Mark Zuckerberg
Motherboard
96 d ago
Everything You Need to Know About Mark Zuckerberg’s Testimony to Congress
For around 10 hours over the past two days, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has perched on a booster-seat-like cushion and fielded questions from Congress.
Asked to testify about Facebook’s handling of private user data in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the 33-year-old calmly and carefully replied to Congress’s questions and attempted to explain how the internet works to more than one octogenarian.
If you wisely decided not to binge watch the entire spectacle—or watch it in VR —fear not. Motherboard has been watching every second of the dialogue and has collected all the most interesting and important bits you may have missed. If you want to get caught up, this is where you should start.
Dive into our biggest takeaways from the hearing:
Zuckerberg said he notified campaigns about Russian meddling, then back pedaled that statement
Zuckerberg repeatedly claimed Facebook doesn’t sell data
Members of Congress kept asking the Zuck to build internet in their states
Zuckerberg’s estimate on how soon Facebook will be able to use AI to detect hate speech
The billionaire saying people don’t understand how Facebook uses their data because privacy policies are hard
After digesting all of that, you might want to move on to:
Checking if your data was affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Then, even if it is, get some context and remind yourself that it’s not your fault you handed Facebook so much juicy data.
The Guardian
96 d ago
Five things we learned from Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook hearing
The CEO’s privacy is as vulnerable as ours, and the social network faces a regulation battle
Zuckerberg put on back foot as House grills Facebook CEO over user trackingHis data was sold to a malicious third party as well, he confirmed, in an answer to a question from the Democratic representative Anna Eshoo.
Continue reading...
CNN
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg's House testimony in two minutes
Here are the highlights from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's second day of Congressional testimony on privacy concerns and possible regulation.
Business Insider
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook collects data on non-users for ‘security’ — here's the whole story (FB)
Mark Zuckerberg told Congress on Wednesday that Facebook collects data on people who don't use the social network for "security purposes." Zuckerberg says that Facebook likes to keep track of people who repeatedly try to access its services, to detect when someone is trying to improperly gather user data. Facebook also targets non-users with ads, even if they never consented to the practice.
One of Facebook's little-known, highly controversial practices is in the spotlight: The fact that it collects data on people who have never signed up for the social network.
One of Facebook's little-known, highly controversial practices is in the spotlight: The fact that it collects data on people who have never signed up for the social network.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified to the US Congress on Wednesday for his second day of grilling by lawmakers following a string of scandals for the company. The 33-year-old CEO has been questioned on everything from Cambridge Analytica's misappropriation of up to 87 million users' data, to allegations of anti-conservative bias at his company. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Mark Zuckerberg tells Congress it's a 'conspiracy theory' that Facebook uses your microphone to spy on you Mark Zuckerberg survived 5 hours of relentless questioning from Congress — here's what you need to know During his Senate hearing, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked about an infamous ex-employee: Palmer Luckey SEE ALSO: How to get Facebook to stop showing you creepy ads like Mark Zuckerberg promises you can do
Reuters
96 d ago
Zuckerberg tangles with Congress on control of Facebook data
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday sparred with lawmakers over how much control users of the world's largest social media network have over their data in a sometimes fractious five-hour hearing.
The Verge
96 d ago
7 takeaways from Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before the House
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made his second of two appearances before Congress on Wednesday, enduring a five-hour session of questions from members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In contrast to their amiably confused counterparts in the Senate , members of the House committee demonstrated a generally better command of how Facebook works and how its efforts to develop richly detailed advertising profiles for billions of people have created privacy concerns around the world.
As with yesterday, Facebook sought to promote steps it has already taken to address the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. But House members spent less time on Cambridge Analytica in favor of asking about a broader range of subjects,...
Continue reading…
Venture Beat
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg is betting AI will address Facebook’s biggest problems
During Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony to members of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, the main topic of discussion was regulation. Zuckerberg was asked why Facebook should be trusted to self-regulate, what kind of regulation he would like to see, whether he would be willing to endorse the CONSENT Act (which would allow the FTC to regulate… Read More
Entrepreneur
96 d ago
The Biggest Revelations and Strangest Moments From Mark Zuckerberg's Congressional Testimony
Here's what you need to know after the Facebook co-founder and CEO's visit to Washington.
Futurism
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg’s Congressional Testimony: Day 2
If you watched Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony to Congress both today and yesterday , you might have felt like you’re were stuck in some incredibly awkward (and somehow paler) version of Groundhog Day.
Lots of the same questions from lawmakers.
Lots of the same answers from Zuckerberg.
While yesterday’s hearing involved a pair of Senate committees, today’s testimony was for the benefit of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Each of the committee’s members had four minutes to take a swing at the piñata that is Facebook’s CEO, and a majority used their time to ask questions focused on the same topics the Senate covered yesterday. A brief recap:
Consumer Privacy: What happened with Cambridge Analytica? What data does Facebook collect? Who has access to that data?
Facebook’s Content: Who reviews content? Is Facebook biased? How is Facebook addressing hate speech?
Tech Regulations: Do you think penalties would help address problems? What do you think of Europe’s legislation? Will you support my legislation?
Most of Zuckerberg’s answers to the above echoed those he gave either to the Senate committees yesterday or in other statements . In general, though, the phrases that came out of his mouth the most were probably:
Facebook does not sell data.
Artificial intelligence tools.
I’ll have to look into that and get back to you.
So, lots of the same. But some things were different. Let’s get into that.
“You are hurting people.”
Several House committee members — including Rep. David McKinley (R-WV), Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Rep. Kevin Cramer (ND), and Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) — think Facebook isn’t doing enough to help the country address the opioid crisis , a topic that came up only in passing yesterday.
The lawmakers noted that drugs are often bought and sold through illegal pharmacies on Facebook, and pushed Zuckerberg to commit to stopping those pharmacies from posting ads. “With all due respect, Facebook is actually enabling an illegal activity and, in so doing, you are hurting people,” said McKinley.
Bilirakis asked for a “definitive” answer as to when Facebook planned to remove the ads (as soon as possible after users flag them, according to Zuckerberg).
Cramer was even more direct in his questioning, asking how quickly Facebook would remove the ads if leaving them up resulted in a $1 million fine, possibly hinting at future regulations.
We saw a few visual references yesterday, including a hefty printout of Facebook’s user agreement, but House members seem to really like their props.
McKinley had images of ads selling opioids, while Rep. Marian Walters (D-CA) prepared screenshots of Facebook’s app and photo privacy settings so she could ask Zuckerberg to explain the difference between them.
A man held up a giant photo of conservative bloggers Diamond and Silk while Rep. Billy Long (R-MO) asked Zuckerberg, “What is unsafe about two black woman supporting President Donald J. Trump?”
Later, Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) brandished a pocket-sized copy of the U.S. Constitution during his questioning, noting that he had a copy he wanted to give Zuckerberg after the hearing.
“You’re the CEO, right?”
There’s a lot Zuckerberg doesn’t know (or says he doesn’t know) that House lawmakers think he should. And they weren’t afraid to call him on it.
“You are collecting personal information on people who do not even have Facebook accounts. Isn’t that right?” asked Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL). After Zuckerberg gave his response – “I’m not sure. I don’t think that that’s what we’re tracking.” – she gave her own: “No, you’re collecting.”
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) asked Zuckerberg some version of “You’re the CEO, right?” three times when he denied knowing the answer to her questions about Facebook’s goings on, seemingly implying that he should know.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), meanwhile, was equally unimpressed with his knowledge base, rattling off a list of six “key facts” Zuckerberg said he didn’t know during the course of the hearings.
For now, Zuckerberg will get to go home, robotically drink some robot juice water, and take a well-deserved rest. The scrutiny is guaranteed to continue in the morning.
The post Mark Zuckerberg’s Congressional Testimony: Day 2 appeared first on Futurism .
USA Today
95 d ago
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg testifies: 6 things we learned, a bunch we didn't
Facebook CEO appeared before lawmakers to address data scandal involving Cambridge Analytica.
Ad Week
96 d ago
6 Takeaways From Day 2 of Mark Zuckerberg’s Congressional Testimony
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent several hours with members of the U.S. House of Representatives today answering questions about his company after Tuesday's five-hour grilling by members of the Senate. As expected, today's meeting on Capitol Hill was a bit more heated, with some members of Congress taking a bit more of an antagonistic approach...
WIRED
96 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg's Testimony Birthed a Memepocalypse—Which Is a Good Thing
Give the internet some credit: People watched hours upon hours of testimony just to get some jokes off.
The Guardian
96 d ago
Fact-checking Mark Zuckerberg's testimony about Facebook privacy
When it came to data collection, the CEO cleverly deflected lawmakers’ scrutiny. Here are the claims that don’t stand up
Report: Zuckerberg grilled over user trackingFacebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg remained calm and composed as he sat through more than 10 hours of questioning by members of congress on Tuesday and Wednesday. His strategy appeared to be to show remorse and deference, highlight the changes Facebook had already made and pledge to do more to protect user privacy and prevent foreign interference in elections.
Related: Five things we learned from Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook hearing
Continue reading...
Business Insider
96 d ago
Here's how much Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sheryl Sandberg have donated to the lawmakers that questioned Zuckerberg (FB)
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sheryl Sandberg have donated to some of the lawmakers questioning Zuckerberg during his Congressional testimony this week . Facebook has given the most to Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn't have a strong presence in Washington — but he, Sheryl Sandberg, and Facebook Inc have donated tens of thousands of dollars to several of the same lawmakers that questioned him this week in high-profile Congressional hearings.
Congress grilled Zuckerberg over the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal in which the personal data of 87 million users was obtained by the Trump-linked political research firm Cambridge Analytica. In his first day of testimony, Zuckerberg also answered questions about the spread of fake news, Russian manipulation of the social network, and free speech. See the rest of the story at Business Insider
NOW WATCH: Facebook can still track you even if you delete your account — here's how to stop it
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Mark Zuckerberg's second day of Congressional grilling over user data and Facebook bias didn't go quite as smoothly as his first Zuckerberg was ready to call out Tim Cook over Apple's privacy practices Zuckerberg says 'we made it very clear' that Facebook users could have their data harvested, so it didn't break an FTC agreement SEE ALSO: Cambridge Analytica could have accessed private Facebook messages between 1,500 users and their friends
Fox News
95 d ago
Facebook in crisis: Mark Zuckerberg's testimony reveals massive problems remain
A contrite Mark Zuckerberg was in full damage control mode in Washington, D.C. this week as Facebook's future remains under a cloud of uncertainty following revelations the social network gave a trove of personal information for up to 87 million users to data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica.
Daily Mail
95 d ago
Mark Zuckerberg admits his own personal data was sold to Cambridge Analytica
Mark Zuckerberg made the admission on his second day appearing before Congress in Washington DC (pictured), after it emerged 87 million users may have had their data mined by the firm.
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