Mark Zuckerberg is currently under fire following the revelations of Facebook’s involvement with Cambridge Analytica—a voter profiling company.
It came to light on the 17th of March that Facebook released the personal information of 50 million users ahead of Trump’s 2016 election without permission via a personality app called ‘This Is Your Digital Life’, created by Aleksandr Kogan. The app was downloaded by 270,000 people and received each and everyone of their friends data in the process without consent. Senator Amy Klobuchar asked Zuckerberg to testify before Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the misuse of data to manipulate voters.
“This is a major breach that must be investigated. It is clear these platforms can’t police themselves. I’ve called for more transparency and accountability for online political ads. They say “trust us”. Mark Zuckerberg needs to testify before Senate Judiciary.”
Zuckerberg responded stating that he’d be “open to doing it if he was the right person to do so.”
Facebook has been held accountable for the platforms effect on the 2016 election—from the Fake News saga to Russian tampering during the election, this has been considered a continuous threat to American democracy. “We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can’t then we don’t deserve to serve you.”
Zuckerberg took to his Facebook page to address the data leakage and breach of privacy. “This was a breach of trust between Kogan, Cambridge and Facebook. But it was also a breach of trust between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it.”
https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104712037900071
Although the issue was addressed, the Facebook post shared no resemblance to an apology, but simply acknowledged that ‘mistakes’ had been made. There was also no explanation as to how Cambridge Analytica kept the collected data for 2 years after Zuckerberg was aware that the breach of privacy had occurred.
In response to the #DeleteFacebook movement, urging users to walk away from the social media platform, Zuckerberg said “ I think it’s a clear signal that this is a major trust issue for people and I understand that”.
Say goodbye to your credibility Mark Zuckerberg.
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