This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 12, 2018

WASHINGTON: Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg accepted personal responsibility on Tuesday for the leak of data on tens of millions of its users, while warning of an “arms race” against Russian disinformation during a high-stakes hearing with US lawmakers.

In his first formal congressional appearance, the Facebook founder and chief executive officer (CEO) answered questions for nearly five hours as he sought to quell the storm over privacy and security lapses at the social media giant that have angered lawmakers and the network’s two billion users.

Under mounting pressure over the hijacking of its user data by a British political consultant, Zuckerberg reiterated his apology for the historic breach, before being grilled over how Facebook collects and protects people’s personal information.

“It was my mistake, and I’m sorry,” Zuckerberg said about the improper sharing of 87 million people’s information by Cambridge Analytica, a firm working for Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. “I started Facebook; I run it and I’m responsible for what happens here.”

He added that Facebook fell short of protecting the platform, noting: “That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.”

The 33-year-old CEO spoke of a constant struggle to guard against Russian manipulation of the Facebook platform to influence elections in the US and elsewhere. “There are people in Russia whose job is to try to exploit our systems and other Internet systems and other systems as well,” he said.

“So this is an arms race. They’re going to keep getting better and we need to invest in getting better at this too.”

Of the hundreds of questions Zuckerberg faced at the hearing, none appeared to flummox him more than Senator Dick Durbin’s pointed query about where he slept the previous evening. “Would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?” Durbin asked.

Zuckerberg paused for a full eight seconds, chuckled, grimaced and ultimately demurred. “Um, uh, no,” he said.

And “if you’ve messaged anybody this week, would you share with us the names of the people you’ve messaged?” the Illinois Democrat persisted. Again, a similar unwillingness to answer.

Perhaps more than any other senator during five hours of questioning, Durbin’s everyman tactic put a finger on the crux of the issue surrounding Facebook’s handling of its users’ private data.

Zuckerberg said he was open to regulation, but cautioned against complex rules that might impact emerging social media firms. “I think the Internet is becoming increasingly important in people’s lives and I think we need to have a full conversation about what is the right regulation,” he told the hearing.

“You need to be careful [a new regulatory policy] doesn’t cement in the current companies that are winning.” — AFP