New York (March 22, 2018): Mark Zuckerberg, founder of giant social network Facebook, has over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
After admitting that the giant social network made mistakes, Mark Zuckerberg pledged to introduce changes that would make it harder for third-party apps to “harvest” users’ information.
A “breach of trust” between app creator Aleksandr Kogan, Cambridge Analytica and Facebook had occurred, he said adding that it was also a breach of trust “between Facebook and the people who share their data with us”.
“I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform,” Mr Zuckerberg said in a statement on his Facebook page.
News broke this weekend that Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to President Donald Trump’s campaign, reportedly accessed information from about 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge.
Facebook says the data was initially collected by a professor for academic purposes in line with its rules. The information was later transferred to third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, in violation of Facebook’s policies.
The controversy wiped away nearly $50 billion from Facebook’s stock price earlier this week and prompted politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to call for Zuckerberg to testify.
Facebook is now facing lawsuits from investors and users as well as a “delete Facebook” movement. The latest member of the latter: Brian Acton, the cofounder of WhatsApp, which Facebook acquired for $19 billion in 2014.
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