In the wake of the Facebook data scandal, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says it might be time for governments to build regulations into the company he helped found.
“I actually am not sure we shouldn’t be regulated,” he said during an appearance on CNN on Wednesday night, cautioning that there needed to be the right regulations.
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He suggested that advertisements on other forms of media are regulated and it might be time for governments to do the same on the internet.
“If you look at how much regulation there is around advertising on TV and print, it’s just not clear why there should be less on the internet,” he explained. You should have the same level of transparency required.”
Zuckerberg was making his first interview since news broke Friday that Cambridge Analytica may have used data improperly obtained from roughly 50 million Facebook users to try to sway elections. Cambridge’s clients included Donald Trump’s general-election campaign.
Facebook shares have dropped some 8 per cent, lopping about $46 billion off the company’s market value, since the revelations were first published.
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Zuckerberg apologized for the recent data misuse by Cambridge Analytica.
“This was a major breach of trust and I am really sorry that this happened,” Zuckerberg said. “We have a basic responsibility to protect people’s data and if we can’t do that then we don’t deserve to have the opportunity to serve people.”
Zuckerberg said Facebook is going to do a deep dive into how other developers have used data obtained from Facebook apps.
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“We need to make sure there aren’t any other Cambridge Analyticas out there. Or folks that have improperly accessed data,” he said. “So we’re going to go now and investigate every app that has access to a large amount of information before we lock down our platform and if we detect any suspicious activity, we are going to do a full forensic audit.”
It has been estimated that 50 million Facebook users’ data was used by Cambridge Analytica.
He promised his company will build a tool that will allow users to see if their data had been used by the company.
“We need to tell everyone who was affected,” he said.
Facebook was made aware of the breach in 2015 by the U.K. newspaper the Guardian. Zuckerberg was asked why his company didn’t go public at that time.
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“I am used to when people legally certify that they are going to do something, that they do it but I think that this was clearly a mistake in retrospect,” he responded. “We need to make sure that we don’t make that mistake ever again which is why I announced today is that we are going to do a full investigation into every app that had access to large amount of data, from around this time before we locked down the platform.”
In a Facebook post on Wednesday afternoon, Zuckerberg laid out a three-point plan which will attempt to fix the issue.
“We will ban any developer from our platform that does not agree to a thorough audit,” he wrote.
Second, Zuckerberg said he will “restrict” developers’ access to data of users who haven’t used their app for more than three months. The developers will only be able to access a profile’s name, photo and email address.
The third change, coming in the next month, will involve Facebook offering more information to users on how they can modify settings for which apps can access information.
*With files from Global News’ Maham Abedi and The Associated Press
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