Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg during his congressional hearing on Tuesday said he wants to ensure the protection of the integrity of elections, mentioning that he knows the importance of the upcoming polls in countries, including India, Hungary and Brazil.
“2018 is an important year for the whole world. Several countries like India, Pakistan will have elections. We’ll do everything possible to ensure these elections are safe,” Zuckerberg said.
“Will take more proactive measures and audits. We have the responsibility to not just build tools, but make sure the tools are used for good”, added Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg also says that in future Facebook will behave more responsibly as far as how social media is used to spread news and ensure to act against hate.
“In 5-10 years we’ll have Artificial Intelligent tools that will be sophisticated enough to catch hate speech before it’s posted,” said Mark Zuckerberg.
The Facebook also confirmed that the social media giant did not notify the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2015 when it first learned of Cambridge Analytica harvesting.
“It was a mistake to trust Cambridge Analytica. Users and FTC were not notified as it was considered as a closed case,” said Zuckerberg.
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Zuckerberg faced a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees.
Zuckerberg, 33, testified before the senators and a House panel amid a firestorm over the alleged hijacking of data of millions of Facebook users by British firm Cambridge Analytica.
In prepared testimony released Monday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Zuckerberg apologised for fake news, hate speech, a lack of data privacy and Russian social media interference in the 2016 elections.
“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake,” he said in the remarks. “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”
Zuckerberg also said in a Facebook post on Monday that the company is establishing an independent election research commission that will look into the effects of social media on elections and democracy. He said the commission will work with foundations across the U.S. to set up a committee of academic experts who will come up with research topics and select independent researchers to study them.