Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg will say sorry to the European Parliament on Tuesday, pledging that the social media giant has learned hard lessons from a massive breach of users’ personal data.
Zuckerberg’s comments, released in advance of the hearing in Brussels, are the latest part of a tour of contrition over the Cambridge Analytica scandal that began in the US Congress in April.
“Whether it’s fake news, foreign interference in elections or developers misusing people’s information, we didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibilities,” Zuckerberg will say,
“That was a mistake, and I’m sorry.”
The Facebook chief’s grilling by the European Parliament will be live-streamed to the public after he staged a U-turn on Monday and agreed to a webcast, in a further bid to limit the fallout from the data scandal.
Angry EU lawmakers had objected to initial plans for it to be held behind closed doors.
Facebook admitted that up to 87 million users may have had their data hijacked by British consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which worked for US President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign.
The Silicon Valley giant has told the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, that the personal data of up to 2.7 million Europeans may have been sent inappropriately to Cambridge Analytica, which has since filed for bankruptcy in the US.
