Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook & US Congress Summary of Day 1
- Blog, Digital Marketing, Social Media Management
- 11/04/18
Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook & US Congress Summary of Day 1
Yesterday afternoon, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Founder of Facebook went in front of a United States Congressional committee in regards to data breaches which occurred in 2016 when Cambridge Analytica, purchased customer data from an app developer and used it unethically.
Zuckerberg began his statements by stating, “Facebook is idealistic and optimistic – and as Facebook has grown it is a voice for community and business.”
More specifically, Senators addressed issues such as the company’s responsibility to protect users’ data.
Facebook failed to do this with Cambridge Analytica.
Furthermore, Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed millions of members advertising data by buying it from open source Facebook application developers.
This directly and indirectly caused:
- Fake election news 2016
- Russian paid political ads in feeds
- Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump campaign which procured millions from them
- Data was obtained without users permission
- Data was used in voter-targeting strategy
Mark Zuckerberg further stated, “Everyday people use our services to get connected to people that matter to them the most.”
Senators countered his previous statements with information about third party developers not actively monitored by Facebook until this year.
Mark stated he and Facebook team would be:
- A full investigation by Facebook of 10,000+ applications associated with Facebook
- Ban them if they are improper
- Highlight patterns of API and reports from people
- More spot checks of pages, advertisers and businesses
- More audits
- 20,000 people reviewing content by end of 2018
Senator Bill Nelson does not want personal advertising protection, people are being offered a free service, and nothing in life is free.
Mark Zuckerberg also stated, you can turn off third party information, which is true but a little complicated to figure out.
Facebook also had a 2011 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission FTC where it stated it deceived consumers.
Facebook & Artificial Intelligence
- Currently, Artificial Intelligence Tools Identify Bad Activity
- Senators stated more needs to be done to combat hate speech on Facebook
- Mark stated sometimes hate speech has wording nuances but as they develop their Artificial Intelligence these will be flagged more heavily and do a better job of taking it down
- Important to Facebook for election protection
- Successful elections like the ones in France and Germany in the previous year
- New Artificial Intelligence Protection
- Currently, Facebook Artificial Intelligence is successful at finding terrorist propaganda
Data Mining
Senator Orrin Hatch, Washington D.C. stated “Data mining and sharing user data with advertisers need more transparency.”
Senator Maria Cantwell, Washinton, was trying to address if Facebook provided support to Trump campaign, Mark Zuckerberg stated, yes we provide sales and advertising support to all advertisers on Facebook.
Senator Cantwell thinks the company didn’t act boldly enough.
Facebook is committed to controls similar to those in the Europian Union.
Facebook is going to verify the identity of ever Advertiser and Administrator on political and issues related topics and ads.
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