Zuckerberg Admits FTC Notification Failure During Congressional Grilling
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces tough questions from lawmakers regarding the Cambridge Analytica scandal and election security. He admits the company made a mistake by trusting that improperly harvested user data was actually deleted.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill as he answers questions about the social network's handling of user data and election security. Lawmakers press him on a wide range of topics, but the focus remains heavily on the Cambridge Analytica scandal involving the harvested profiles of 87 million users.
Zuckerberg admits that Facebook makes a critical error by failing to notify the Federal Trade Commission about the 2015 data leak. He explains that the company considers the incident a closed case after demanding the deletion of the data, but acknowledges that trusting the word of Cambridge Analytica without verification is clearly a mistake in retrospect.
Beyond the data leak, the CEO reveals that Facebook actively works with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference, though he keeps the details confidential. He also pushes back against suggestions that Facebook operates as a monopoly, telling Senator Lindsey Graham that dominating the market does not feel like reality to him.