Facebook CEO Testifies Before Congress About A Firm Hired By Trump Campaign

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before a Senate panel on Tuesday to testify about a data firm hired by the Trump campaign, which is accused of improperly obtaining data of up to 87 million Facebook users and supported political campaigns

WASHINGTON, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Apr, 2018 ) :Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before a Senate panel on Tuesday to testify about a data firm hired by the Trump campaign, which is accused of improperly obtaining data of up to 87 million Facebook users and supported political campaigns.

This is the first time, the Facebook CEO has appeared before the Congress and was grilled and questioned about as to how British-based Cambridge Analytica was able to secure date of Facebook users.

"It's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well," he said during the nearly five hours of testimony, responding to a question about Cambridge Analytica's harvesting of data from Facebook users.

According to a report, Cambridge Analytica was co-founded by former White House strategist Stephen Bannon and the data might have been used during the 2016 presidential campaign. Days before the hearing, Zuckerberg also US lawmakers to express his regret over how the data firm misused the Facebook users and shared it with the political consultancy.

In case, he fails to satisfy the lawmakers, Facebook faced possible regulations under the law. Among the questions, he faced include how Russian operatives who are believed to have attempted to influence the US 2016 elections were able to post advertisement and posts on the Facebook.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton faced an unexpected defeat at the hands of then candidate, Trump in the elections. During the hearing Zuckerberg said that Facebook did not take a broad enough view of its responsibility which was a big mistake.

The hearing was held by the joint Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees. However, he defended his company saying that his top priority had always been its social mission of connecting people, building community and bringing the world closer.

Congress may decide to bring the social media giant under regulations. Facebook has already shown its willingness to support new laws that would make all social media networks disclose that who is posting political advertisement on Facebook, much like what the tv and radios do in the States.

If imposed, Facebook may see its advertisement revenue hurt, which is the main earning source for the social media platform used worldwide and which has billions of users. Since the controversy began in January, Facebook shares are almost 17 percent down.

Facebook was launched 14 years ago and is now the main medium of communication by billions of users in nearly all countries of the world.