Mark Zuckerberg faced two days of questioning in Congress this week in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The Facebook chief revealed that his own data was compromised along with up to 87 million users of the social media platform.
Cambridge University academic Aleksandr Kogan developed a Facebook app which featured a personality quiz called ‘thisisyourdigitallife’ and Cambridge Analytica paid people to take it.
As well as the quiz results and the user’s Facebook account data, however, it also collected the data of their Facebook friends as well – which is strictly against Facebook’s rules.
Zuckerberg told politicians that there may be something “bad” going on at Cambridge University.
“What we found now is that there’s a whole programme associated with Cambridge University where… there were a number of other researchers building similar apps.
“We do need to understand whether there is something bad going on at Cambridge University overall that will require a stronger action from us.”
This was in reference to the university’s psychometrics centre, which is reported to have worked with Cambridge Analytica on ways to predict human behaviour – a claim denied by Cambridge University.
The institution said it was “surprised” that Zuckerberg had only now become aware of its psychographics work. “Our researchers have been publishing such research since 2013 in major peer-reviewed scientific journals, and these studies have been reported widely in international media.
“These have included one study in 2015 led by Dr Aleksandr Spectre [Kogan] and co-authored by two Facebook employees.”
So what did Twitter make of Zuck’s Washington performance – both serious and not?
There is a 100% chance Mark #Zuckerberg is a robot ?? pic.twitter.com/KkXiInctXh
— Mike Tokes (@MikeTokes) April 11, 2018
Almost feel bad for Zuckerberg. There’s no way he left that room full of old people without having to set up their wifi.
— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) April 11, 2018
WATCH ??
Mark #Zuckerberg explains the internet! ?? pic.twitter.com/E3uw3sEN8n
— Larry Kim (@larrykim) April 12, 2018
Here are the most confusing questions Congress asked Zuckerberg during this week’s hearing https://t.co/u5r7yAMcbF pic.twitter.com/hxBHf5EbKF
— CNNMoney (@CNNMoney) April 12, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony did little to mollify lawmakers, who called for new regulations that would limit Facebook’s ability to collect data on users without permission and to make privacy policies clear https://t.co/BN8WNDkF58
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 12, 2018
Congressional Republicans fell over themselves thanking Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook: https://t.co/YrUWv9H0YE pic.twitter.com/90RZQR1FT0
— Slate (@Slate) April 12, 2018
It’s satisfying to watch Zuckerberg be grilled by Congress for hours on end—
But it’s not enough. We need real legislation that puts Facebook and companies like it in check. https://t.co/qdPHDxVE2o
— Nate Lerner (@NathanLerner) April 12, 2018
#Zuckerberg #DeleteYourFacebookAccount #DeleteFacebook#BoycottFacebook
I don’t MISS it! pic.twitter.com/4koIdjXFMn
— ????????Lady De’Plorable???????? (@LadyRedStorm) April 12, 2018
MONTAGE: Zuckerberg’s Solution To Everything? ‘More AI Tools’ https://t.co/6uoqGbrqC7 pic.twitter.com/Lc1F4MltxI
— The Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 12, 2018
Mark Zuckerberg being swarmed by cameras is the perfect metaphor for online privacy today https://t.co/nrUk5hgheK pic.twitter.com/XY6xRsnaxG
— The Verge (@verge) April 12, 2018
What Zuck should say when people ask if Facebook listening to them:
– it’d eat all your phone battery
– it’s eat all your data allowance
– even when you think you’re unpredictable, you’re not— Martin Bryant (@MartinSFP) April 11, 2018