Facebook's Zuckerberg to step up security features ahead of India polls

Zuckerberg breaks silence on crisis over Cambridge Analytica's access to FB user data

Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said the social network is enhancing its security features to ensure the integrity of upcoming elections in countries like India on its platform.

Facebook is facing growing government scrutiny in Europe and the United States following allegations by a whistleblower that British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed users’ information to build profiles on American voters that were later used to help elect US President Donald Trump in 2016.

“I’m not sure we shouldn’t be regulated,” Zuckerberg told CNN. “I actually think the question is more what is the right regulation rather than yes or no, should it be regulated? ... People should know who is buying the ads that they see on Facebook.” He said Facebook was committed to stopping interference in the US midterm election in November and elections in India and Brazil.

Zuckerberg, in an interview with The New York Times, 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 last year.

“The new AI tools we built after the 2016 elections found, I think, more than 30,000 fake accounts that we believe were linked to Russian sources who were trying to do the same kind of tactics they did in the US in the 2016 election. We were able to disable them and prevent that from happening on a large scale in France,” he said.  

The House Energy and Commerce Committee said in a statement on Thursday that Zuckerberg “is the right witness to provide answers to the American people”. Facebook’s representatives left “many questions” unanswered during a staff-level briefing by company officials on Wednesday, panel chairman Greg Walden and its top Democrat Frank Pallone said. Five other committees are receiving such briefings, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers also have called for Zuckerberg’s appearance.

Zuckerberg, meanwhile, outlined concrete steps the company was taking to make sure such a leak did not happen again. Critics were underwhelmed, though.

“I’ve been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post on his Facebook profile page. “I promise you we’ll work through this and build a better service over the long term.”

By pledging to investigate whether Cambridge Analytica still holds the information it obtained from a third-party app creator, and broadening the probe to other developers that may have run afoul of Facebook’s rules, Zuckerberg took a step in the right direction, according to lawmakers, investors and users. But it wasn’t enough to end the criticism -- some remained skeptical the company is doing enough.

Lawmakers still want Zuckerberg to testify. “This isn’t going to cut it,” David Cicilline, a Democratic US representative from Rhode Island, said in a Facebook post responding to the CEO’s statement. “Mark Zuckerberg needs to testify before Congress.”

That sentiment was echoed by other lawmakers in the US and Europe, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut. “Mea culpas are no substitute for questions and answers under oath,” Blumenthal, a member of the Judiciary Committee, said. “Congress has failed to hold Facebook accountable, and legislate protections on privacy, which are manifestly necessary.”

Antonio Tajani, president of the European Parliament, said in a Twitter post that many questions remain unanswered. “I look forward to him giving further explanations before the elected representatives of over 500 million European citizens,” he said.

In interviews on Wednesday, Zuckerberg said he was “open” to testifying before Congress, if he’s the right person to provide the information lawmakers need. But he stopped short of committing to appear.

Facebook’s board followed up on Zuckerberg’s statement with its own, responding to critics. “Mark and Sheryl know how serious this situation is and are working with the rest of Facebook leadership to build stronger user protections,” Sue Desmond-Hellmann, the lead director of Facebook’s board, said in a statement. “They have built the company and our business and are instrumental to its future.”