Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on an apologising spree for months, and on Tuesday, 22 May, in front of the European Parliament, it was no different.
Zuckerberg felt the need to say “sorry” for the internet giant's failure to prevent some of the internet tools it has developed from being misused.
During a testimony at the European Parliament Zuckerberg said Tuesday that whether it was "fake news, foreign interference in elections and developers misusing people's information. We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibilities."
The hour-long testimony comprised of many parliament members and politicians sharing their concern with Zuckerberg. They also wanted to know if Facebook will be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which rolls out on 25 May.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced senior European Union lawmakers, answering questions about a scandal over the alleged misuse of the data of millions of Facebook users.
Zuckerberg testified last month to the US Congress, but had been noncommittal about appearing in Europe. But as things went on, the narrative of the testimony felt similar to the one Zuckerberg gave few months back.
Having said that, few members did raise valid concerns about Facebook and it’s surprising how Zuckerberg managed to evade them and leave with a basic “we’ll follow up on that” message all the time. Lawmakers are ideally supposed to grill the party in the spotlight, but what we’ve seen with Facebook has been anything but that.
Facebook’s approach to all these events have been in the form of a PR exercise, which most journalists are used to hearing from a giant like it.
We’re hopeful that Zuckerberg decides to speak (or write) on the matters discussed at the testimony in Brussels, especially with regards to the data sharing pact that WhatsApp and Facebook seem to have and that’s got everyone worried across the world.
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