Mark Zuckerberg faced off against a joint session of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees today, during which he acknowledged that Facebook is responsible for the content that appears on the social network and tentatively embraced regulation, provided it's the "right regulation."
The Facebook CEO was in D.C. to answer questions about how Cambridge Analytica obtained data on up to 87 million users several years ago. Several senators quizzed Zuckerberg on why Facebook did not inform those millions of people why their data had been scraped back in 2015, when the issue was first brought to the social network's attention.
Zuckerberg side-stepped the question at first, arguing that Facebook demanded in 2015 that Cambridge Analytica delete the data it had collected. The firm reportedly did not do that, and "in retrospect, it was clearly a mistake to believe them," Zuckberg said today.
When pressed, Zuckerberg said Facebook "considered it a closed case" in 2015, so the company did not notify users or authorities like the Federal Trade Commission.
That could potentially run afoul of a 2011 privacy-related FTC settlement, but Zuckerberg said "we believe we are in compliance" with that order.
Later, Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat, pushed Zuckerberg on the notification point again, but he could not say when execs made the decision not to alert consumers. Facebook did so, however, "based on false information," he argued, referring to Cambridge's pledge that data had been deleted, and admitted it was the wrong move.
Why did Facebook not ban Cambridge Analytica in 2015? Initially, Zuckerberg said the firm was not an advertiser or a Page operator at the time, so there was "nothing to ban." Later in the hearing, after conferring with staff during a break, he corrected that to say Cambridge Analytica was indeed an advertiser starting in late 2015, "so we could've banned them [and] we made a mistake in not doing so."
A Big Mistake
That was a familiar refrain during the hearing; Facebook can "do better," Zuckerberg said repeatedly, in reference to things like flagging objectionable content. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, suggested today's hearing was just another stop on an "apology tour" Zuckerberg has been on for years.
The "big mistake" Facebook has made is viewing its responsibility as just building tools rather than making sure those tools are used for good, Zuckerberg said.
Ultimately, however, "I agree that we're responsible for the content," Zuckerberg conceded, which not something you hear too often from the heads of major tech platforms.
Later, when asked the "are you a media company?" question, Zuckerberg reiterated that Facebook is responsible for the content on its platform, "but we don't produce the content." But that's not incompatible with being a tech company, he argued.
This year, the most important content Facebook will have to police are election-related posts; it's Zuckerberg's "top priority," he said today. The company has already employed AI-based tools to target scammers and trolls during the French presidential election, and that will continue ahead of the US mid-term elections and other races around the globe.
The 'Right Regulation'
Going forward, Congress will have to decide if this incident requires lawmakers to regulate the social network.
"My position is not that there should be no regulation," Zuckerberg said today, provided it's "the right regulation."
He reiterated Facebook's support for The Honest Ads Act from Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Mark Warner, and John McCain. It calls on major online services to keep a public file on political ad purchases, which anyone—such as voters and journalists—can access. It would also force tech companies to include disclaimers on each online political ad, identifying who sponsored them.
Facebook has already pledged to implement some of the changes the Honest Ads Act calls for. Advertisers will need to confirm their identity and location and get a blue verification badge, for example, while Facebook said it will be more transparent about the origin of political ads.
Sen. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, also asked Zuckerberg whether he'd support The Consent Act, which would require opt-in consent from users in order for Facebook to use, share, or sell users' personal information. Zuckerberg said he agreed with the bill "as a principle," but would have to see the text of the bill to make a final determination of support.
"We do require permission to use the system [and] we don't sell information," said Zuckerberg, something he stressed several times during the hearing.