Unable to ignore the public outcry any longer, Facebook CEO, and multi-billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to testify before Congress “within a matter of weeks” on his social network’s mounting data-mining scandal, according to a report from CNN.
Zuckerberg is deep in it following multiple revelations that Facebook allowed the mining of millions of users’ private information for use in the presidential campaigns of both Barack Obama and Donald Trump. According to sources from Facebook, “the pressure from lawmakers, the media, and the public has become too intense to justify anything less” than a congressional testimony.
BREAKING: Mark Zuckerberg has decided to testify before Congress, Facebook sources tell @CNNMoney. Facebook is currently planning the strategy for his testimony. https://t.co/Gcfoflbhdp pic.twitter.com/c70JgWGH45
— CNN (@CNN) March 27, 2018
Zuckerberg has desperately been trying to avoid the hullabaloo surrounding Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that reportedly accessed information from about 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge. However, he told CNN last week that he’d be “happy” to testify before Congress “if it’s the right thing to do.”
Indeed, lots of people think it is the right thing to do, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. Grassley said Monday that he’s invited Zuckerberg to testify at a data privacy hearing on April 10, along with Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into the company, and attorneys representing 37 states penned a letter Monday urging Facebook to explain how Cambridge Analytica was able to get its hands on such personal data. “These revelations raise many serious questions concerning Facebook´s policies and practices, and the processes in place to ensure they are followed,” the letter said. “We need to know that users can trust Facebook. With the information we have now, our trust has been broken.”
Facebook’s stock has plummeted since the revelation of the scandal, and Zuckerberg has personally lost at least $10 billion.
The public definitely deserves to know the role Facebook played in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Hopefully, Zuckerberg will take responsibility for his company’s actions and not attempt to pawn the whole thing off on Trump – especially when it was Obama who mined Facebook data first.
Source: Daily Mail
Share this if you think Mark Zuckerberg needs to take responsibility for Facebook’s shady business practices!
