Cornered by world public opinion, Zuckerberg forced to say 'sorry'

Washington DC: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday apologised for a "major breach of trust" with its users and vowed to take steps to protect their data, as the social media giant faced heat by a massive scandal over data siphoned by a data mining firm with ties to the 2016 Trump campaign. Seeking to quell the global uproar over harvesting of data of 50 million Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica, a British firm linked to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, Zuckerberg admitted making "mistakes."

"I started Facebook, and at the end of the day, I'm responsible for what happens on our platform. I'm serious about doing what it takes to protect our community," he said in his first public comments since the scandal broke out. "We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you," Zuckerberg, 33, said in a Facebook post. He promised to make it far harder for apps to "harvest" user information.

Later, he told CNN in an interview that he was "really sorry" that this happened. "This was a major breach of trust and I'm really sorry that this happened," he said, adding that it was the company's responsibility now is to make sure this does not happen again. CA's chief executive, Alexander Nix, who was suspended on Tuesday, was secretly recorded in a Channel 4 investigation saying the London-based company ran Donald Trump's digital campaign during the 2016 US election. Zuckerberg said Facebook would be reviewing thousands of apps in an "intensive process".

The data scandal erupted after a whistleblower revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a data firm with ties to Trump's presidential campaign, accessed personal data from 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge, and might have kept that data even after Facebook told the company to delete it. Cambridge Analytica (CA) had created psychological profiles on 50 million Facebook users via a personality prediction app, created by a researcher named Aleksandr Kogan.

Zuckerberg added that Facebook is enhancing its security features to ensure the integrity of upcoming key elections in countries like India on its platform. He referred to the artificial intelligence (AI) tools deployed by Facebook to detect fake accounts trying to manipulate news and influence the elections. Such a tool was deployed for the first time in the French elections in 2017.

"Last year in 2017 with the special election in Alabama, we deployed some new AI Tools to identify fake accounts and false news, and we found a significant number of Macedonian accounts that were trying to spread false news, and were able to eliminate those," Zuckerberg said.

"This is a massive focus for us to make sure we're dialed in for not only the 2018 elections in the US, but the Indian elections, the Brazilian elections, and a number of other elections that are going on this year that are really important," Zuckerberg said.