Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted mistakes in the handling of data of 50 million of its users in the U.S. that influenced the President election.
He did not announce any punishment to decision makers at Facebook. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will continue in the top position.
Reuters reported that the world’s largest social media network is facing growing government scrutiny in Europe and the United States about a whistleblower’s allegations that London-based political consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly accessed user information to build profiles on American voters which were later used to help elect U.S. President Donald Trump in 2016.
Zuckerberg, in his first public comments since the scandal erupted at the weekend, said in a post on Facebook that the company “made mistakes, there’s more to do, and we need to step up and do it.”
He did not elaborate on what the mistakes were, but he said the global social network plans to conduct an investigation of apps on its platform, restrict developer access to data, and give members a tool that lets them more disable access to their Facebook data.
He did not explicitly apologize for the improper use of data, and his plans did not represent a big reduction of advertisers’ ability to use Facebook data, which is the company’s lifeblood.
The company has lost more than $45 billion of its stock market value over the past three days on investor fears that any failure by big tech firms to protect personal data could deter advertisers and users and invite tougher regulation.
Many analysts have now raised concerns that the incident will have a negative impact on user engagement with Facebook, potentially reducing its clout with advertisers. Three Wall Street brokerages cut their price targets.
“Investors now have to consider whether or not the company will conclude that it has grown in a manner that has proven to be untenable or whether it needs to significantly improve how it is managed,” said Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser.
