Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg started his long Senate hearing Tuesday with an apology and a pledge to do a better job protecting people’s data, but managed nonetheless to leave some senators disappointed on that issue and others, including efforts by the social media giant to root out “fake news.”
On data privacy, Zuckerberg admitted that even though personal information on tens of millions of users was accessed by Cambridge Analytica, no one at his company got in trouble over that incident.
[Related: 9 key moments from Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony on Capitol Hill]
When Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., asked if anyone was fired from Facebook, Zuckerberg said, “Not because of this.”
Sen. Blumenthal (D-CT): “Has anyone been fired on that app review team?”
Mark Zuckerberg: “Senator, not because of this.” https://t.co/CbFO899XlU pic.twitter.com/ItKSEd6FlV— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 10, 2018
In a related conversation with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Zuckerberg admitted he didn’t notify anyone about the incident, including the Federal Trade Commission, since Cambridge Analytica wasn’t on Facebook at the time.
“We considered it a closed case. In retrospect that was clearly a mistake. We shouldn’t have taken their word for it,” he said.
And Zuckerberg also couldn’t say if there were other data breaches. Instead, he said an audit was ongoing, and didn’t say when the company might have an answer.
“Going forward, we’re going to take a more proactive position on this and do much more regular spot checks and other reviews of apps as well as increasing the amount of audits we do,” Zuckerberg said.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., highlighted the frustration felt by Congress by asking Zuckerberg if he would feel comfortable sharing the name of the hotel he stayed at last night, or the names of the people he messaged recently.
“Senator, no, I would probably not choose to do that publicly here,” Zuckerberg said.
“I think that may be what this is all about: your right to privacy — the limits of your right to privacy, and how much you give away in modern America in the name of, quote, connecting people around the world,” Durbin said.
Zuckerberg was pressed on several other issues, and in many cases wasn’t able to give full answers to senators.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for example, asked about complaints that Facebook was pushing conservative commentary off the service.
“There are a many great Americans who I think are deeply concerned that Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship,” Cruz said.
Zuckerberg again had no specific answer, but said he does worry that his company might lean to the left.
“This is actually a concern that I have and what I try to root out in the company is making sure that we don’t have any bias in the work that we do, and I think it is a fair concern that people would wonder about,” he said.
But Democrats were unhappy as well. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., pressed Zuckerberg on if he would support legislation to create a “privacy bill of rights” for younger Facebook users. When Zuckerberg said that sort of idea deserves “discussion,” Markey pounced.
“I couldn’t disagree with you more,” Markey said.
