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Tag: Mark Zuckerberg

  • Army of Facebook CEO cutouts flood Capitol lawn in mass protest

    Ahead of Mark Zuckerberg’s Senate hearing on Tuesday, a global advocacy group, Avaaz, took an army of 100 life-sized Zuckerberg cutouts wearing ‘Fix Facebook’ t-shirts to the Capitol lawn.

    TheNewsGuru reports the event intends to call attention to the hundreds of millions of fake accounts still spreading disinformation on Facebook and other social platforms.

    The protest is part of Avaaz’s campaign calling on Mark Zuckerberg, Internet CEOs and government regulators to fight disinformation campaigns threatening our democracies.

    The group is calling on the CEO to ban all bots, alert the public any and every time users see fake or disinformation, fund fact checkers around the world, and submit to an independent audit to review the scale and scope of fake news.

    “We know Facebook is doing things to address the fake news problem, but they are doing it in a way that is too small and too secretive,” Avaaz campaign director Nell Greenberg told CNN.

    Zuckerberg is set to appear before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on Tuesday, followed by a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday.

    On Monday, Zuckerberg told Congress that the social media network should have done more to prevent itself and its members’ data from being misused and offered a broad apology to lawmakers.

    His conciliatory tone precedes two days of Congressional hearings where Zuckerberg is set to answer questions about Facebook user data being improperly appropriated by a political consultancy and the role the network played in the U.S. 2016 election.

    “We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake,” he said in remarks released by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday.

    “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”

    Surrounded by tight security wearing dark suit and a purple tie rather than his trademark hoodie, Zuckerberg was meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Monday ahead of his scheduled appearance before two Congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday.

    He did not respond to questions as he entered and left a meeting with Sen. Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee.

    He is expected to meet Sen. John Thune, the Commerce Committee’s Republican chairman, later in the day, among others.

    Top of the agenda in the forthcoming hearings will be Facebook’s admission that the personal information of up to 87 million users, mostly in the United States, may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

    But lawmakers are also expected to press him on a range of issues, including the 2016 election.

    “It’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm…” his testimony continued.

    “That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.”

    Facebook, which has 2.1 billion monthly active users worldwide, said on Sunday it plans to begin on Monday telling users whose data, may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica.

    The company’s data practices are under investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

    London-based Cambridge Analytica, which counts U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign among its past clients, has disputed Facebook’s estimate of the number of affected users.

    Zuckerberg also said that Facebook’s major investments in security “will significantly impact our profitability going forward.” Facebook shares were up two per cent in midday trading.

    Facebook has about 15,000 people working on security and content review, rising to more than 20,000 by the end of 2018, Zuckerberg’s testimony said.

    “Protecting our community is more important than maximising our profits,” he said.

    As with other Silicon Valley companies, Facebook has been resistant to new laws governing its business, but on Friday it backed proposed legislation requiring social media sites to disclose the identities of buyers of online political campaign ads.

    Also introduced a new verification process for people buying “issue” ads, which do not endorse any candidate but have been used to exploit divisive subjects such as gun laws or police shootings.

    The steps are designed to deter online information warfare and election meddling that U.S. authorities have accused Russia of pursuing, Zuckerberg said on Friday.

    Moscow has denied the allegations.

    Zuckerberg’s testimony said the company was “too slow to spot and respond to Russian interference, and we’re working hard to get better.”

    He vowed to make improvements, adding it would take time, but said he was “committed to getting it right.”

    A Facebook official confirmed that the company had hired a team from the law firm WilmerHale and outside consultants to help prepare Zuckerberg for his testimony and how lawmakers may question him.

     

  • Facebook CEO, Zuckerberg apologizes ahead of Congressional quizzing

    Facebook CEO, Zuckerberg apologizes ahead of Congressional quizzing

    Facebook Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mark Zuckerberg, on Monday told Congress the social media network should have done more to prevent itself and its members’ data from being misused and offered a broad apology to lawmakers.

    His conciliatory tone precedes two days of Congressional hearings where Zuckerberg is set to answer questions about Facebook user data being improperly appropriated by a political consultancy and the role the network played in the U.S. 2016 election.

    “We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake,” he said in remarks released by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Monday.

    “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”

    Surrounded by tight security wearing dark suit and a purple tie rather than his trademark hoodie, Zuckerberg was meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Monday ahead of his scheduled appearance before two Congressional committees on Tuesday and Wednesday.

    He did not respond to questions as he entered and left a meeting with Sen. Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee.

    He is expected to meet Sen. John Thune, the Commerce Committee’s Republican chairman, later in the day, among others.

    Top of the agenda in the forthcoming hearings will be Facebook’s admission that the personal information of up to 87 million users, mostly in the United States, may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

    But lawmakers are also expected to press him on a range of issues, including the 2016 election.

    “It’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm…” his testimony continued.

    “That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.”

    Facebook, which has 2.1 billion monthly active users worldwide, said on Sunday it plans to begin on Monday telling users whose data, may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica.

    The company’s data practices are under investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

    London-based Cambridge Analytica, which counts U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign among its past clients, has disputed Facebook’s estimate of the number of affected users.

    Zuckerberg also said that Facebook’s major investments in security “will significantly impact our profitability going forward.” Facebook shares were up two per cent in midday trading.

    Facebook has about 15,000 people working on security and content review, rising to more than 20,000 by the end of 2018, Zuckerberg’s testimony said.

    “Protecting our community is more important than maximising our profits,” he said.

    As with other Silicon Valley companies, Facebook has been resistant to new laws governing its business, but on Friday it backed proposed legislation requiring social media sites to disclose the identities of buyers of online political campaign ads.

    Also introduced a new verification process for people buying “issue” ads, which do not endorse any candidate but have been used to exploit divisive subjects such as gun laws or police shootings.

    The steps are designed to deter online information warfare and election meddling that U.S. authorities have accused Russia of pursuing, Zuckerberg said on Friday.

    Moscow has denied the allegations.

    Zuckerberg’s testimony said the company was “too slow to spot and respond to Russian interference, and we’re working hard to get better.”

    He vowed to make improvements, adding it would take time, but said he was “committed to getting it right.”

    A Facebook official confirmed that the company had hired a team from the law firm WilmerHale and outside consultants to help prepare Zuckerberg for his testimony and how lawmakers may question him.

     

  • Privacy scandal: Facebook CEO testifies before Congress

    Privacy scandal: Facebook CEO testifies before Congress

    Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will testify next week before congressional committees over Cambridge Analytica misuse of users’ data to interfere in the democratic process of several countries, including Nigeria.

    US lawmakers made this known on Wednesday saying Zuckerberg will appear before a joint hearing of the US Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on April 10 and the US House Energy and Commerce Committee on April 11.

    “This hearing will be an important opportunity to shed light on critical consumer data privacy issues and help all Americans better understand what happens to their personal information online,” the House panel’s Republican chairman, Greg Walden, and top Democrat, Frank Pallone, said in a statement.

    Facebook has come under fire in recent weeks after it was disclosed that data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and allegedly worked for Nigeria’s former president Goodluck Jonathan, gained access to the personal data of over 50 million Facebook users.

    Facebook said in March it had suspended the accounts of Cambridge Analytica and its parent company and hired forensic auditors to probe whether Cambridge Analytica still had the data.

    The technology company also said at the time it would investigate all applications that had gotten access to large amounts of data before the firm changed its platform in 2014, would further restrict developers’ data access and roll out a tool to let users more easily revoke access by applications to their data.

    Zuckerberg said in March he would testify before Congress, but turned down an invitation by British lawmakers to explain to a parliamentary committee what had happened.

    The company has faced pressure to do more, both in terms of protecting user privacy and stopping “information warfare” on its platform.

    In February, 13 Russian nationals were indicted for using Facebook and other social media sites to interfere in the US presidential election.

    On Tuesday, Facebook said it had removed hundreds of accounts and pages associated with the Russia-based Internet Research Agency that included fake activist and political posts in the 2016 US election campaign.

    American spy agencies have warned that Russia would try to interfere in the 2018 congressional elections, and there are speculations that external forces might interfere in the 2019 general elections in Nigeria, by using social media to spread propaganda.

    Shares in Facebook closed down 0.6 percent on Wednesday to $155.10. They have tumbled more than 16 percent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke.

     

  • Alarming: Facebook privacy scandal widens

    Facebook said on Wednesday that the personal information of up to 87 million users may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

    This number is up from a previous news media estimate of more than 50 million.

    Most of the 87 million people whose data was shared with Cambridge Analytica, were in the United States, Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer wrote in a blog post.

    Cambridge Analytica worked on U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

    Facebook said it was taking steps to restrict the personal data available to third-party app developers.

    The world’s largest-social-media company has been hammered by investors and faces anger from users, advertisers and lawmakers after a series of scandals about fake-news stories, election-meddling and privacy.

    Last month, Facebook acknowledged that personal information about millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica.

    Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg will testify about the matter next week before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, the panel said on Wednesday.

    Shares in Facebook were down 1.4 per cent on Wednesday to 153.90 dollars . They are down more than 16 percent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke.

    The previous estimate of more than 50 million Facebook users affected by the data leak came from two newspapers, the New York Times and London’s Observer, based on their investigations of Cambridge Analytica.

    Schroepfer did not provide details of how Facebook came to determine its higher estimate.

    However, he said Facebook would tell people if their information may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

    A representative from Cambridge Analytica could not immediately be reached for comment.

    The British-based consultancy has denied wrongdoing.

    It says it engaged a university professor “in good faith” to collect Facebook data in a manner similar to how other third-party app developers have harvested personal information.

    The scandal has kicked off investigations by Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and by some 37 U.S. state attorneys general.

     

  • It may take Facebook years to fix problems related to private user data – Zuckerberg

    It may take Facebook years to fix problems related to private user data – Zuckerberg

    It may take a few years in order for Facebook to solve the problems associated with third-parties using data from its users in unauthorised ways, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday.

    “I think we will dig through this hole, but it will take a few years.

    “I wish I could solve all these issues in three months or six months, but I just think the reality is that solving some of these questions is just going to take a longer period of time,’’ Zuckerberg told newsmen.

    Cambridge Analytica became embroiled in an international scandal after it emerged that the company had received the data of around 50 million Facebook users without their permission and through improper channels.

    The company harvested the information to develop a mechanism that would predict and influence the behaviour of voters to boost U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

    Facebook announced recently it would shut down the Partner Categories, which allows third party data providers to offer their targeting directly on Facebook.

    It also plans to introduce new privacy tools in the coming weeks to allow users to more easily manage and access their personal data.

    In March 29, Zuckerberg apologised for the situation with the Cambridge Analytica and admitted that he should not have trusted the firm.

    He has said there were several mistakes that led to the situation, adding that most of the actions needed to prevent this from happening again were already taken years ago.

     

  • Zuckerberg’s net worth falls by N5 trillion as Facebook shares drop by 18%

    Zuckerberg’s net worth falls by N5 trillion as Facebook shares drop by 18%

    Worlds’ fifth richest person and founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, valued at $71 billion (roughly N25 trillion) has reportedly lost about $14 billion (roughly N5 trillion) of his net worth.

    This is as a result of 18% fall in Facebook market shares especially after Zuckerberg agreed to testify before Congress on the recent crisis rocking the social media platform, arising from Cambridge Analytica.

    Facebook shares fell by 5% on Tuesday only after the Facebook founder made the confirmation of appearing before Congress.

    The 18% fall in Facebook’s stock has wiped out nearly $80 billion (roughly N28 trillion) from the social networking giant’s market value in the period of the still raging crisis that started March 16.

    According to reports, Tech stocks in general have taken a hit since the Facebook debacle started with Nasdaq down by 6%.

    YouTube owner Google and Twitter, have both nosedived as well. Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell by 7% since March 16 while Twitter has plunged 20%. Twitter was down by 12% alone on Tuesday.

    According to Craig Birk, executive vice president of portfolio management at investing firm Personal Capital in a note Tuesday, as quoted by CNN, said, “While the scandal is likely to blow over, investors should be aware that a continued sell-off in this sector would not be surprising, and if another scandal were to hit, it just might break the tech sector’s back”.

    Meanwhile, Zuckerberg is still worth $61 billion (roughly N21 trillion), though.

     

  • Facebook shares dip as U.S. regulator announces privacy probe

    Facebook Inc shares fell to 6.5 per cent on Monday after United States-consumer-protection-regulator said it was investigating how the social-network allowed data of 50 million users to get into the hands of a political-consultancy.

    Scrutiny by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which generally confirms the existence of an investigation only in cases of significant public interest.

    In addition to pressure from lawmakers in the United States and Europe, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was to explain how his company handles user data.

    Facebook shares briefly dipped below 150 dollars on Monday for the first time since July 2017, before recouping some losses. They were down 3.1 per cent at 154.37 dollars in afternoon trading.

    At the day’s session low the company had lost 100 billion dollars in market value since March 17.

    Newspapers first reported at such date that Facebook member data was improperly used by consultants Cambridge Analytica to target U.S. and British voters in close-run elections.

    “FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook,” the regulator said in a statement.

    “Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices.”

    The investigation is broader than looking into whether Facebook violated a 2011 consent order it reached with the FTC over its privacy practices, official sources.

    “We remain strongly committed to protecting people’s information,” Facebook Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman said in a statement on Monday.

    “We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have.”

    If the FTC finds Facebook violated terms of the consent decree, it has the power to fine it thousands of dollars a day per violation, which could add up to billions of dollars.

    The FTC’s move to make its probe public comes as lawmakers in the United States and Europe put more pressure on Facebook and Zuckerberg to explain the company’s privacy practices.

    “Facebook’s failure to protect confidential user information likely violated specific legally binding commitments.

    ”It also violates basic norms and standards,” said U.S. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

    The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said on Monday it had invited the CEOs of Facebook, Alphabet Inc and Twitter Inc to testify at an April 10 hearing on data privacy.

    A bipartisan coalition of 37 state attorneys general also wrote to Facebook on Monday.

    They demanded to know about the company’s role in the manipulation of users’ data by Cambridge Analytica and its policies and procedures for protecting private data.

    The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee and U.S. Senate Commerce Committee have already formally asked Zuckerberg to appear at a congressional hearing.

    Earlier in the day in Europe, the European Union Justice Commissioner asked Facebook if the company is “absolutely certain” that the Cambridge Analytica incident could not be repeated.

    Zuckerberg apologized last week for the mistakes the company had made.

    He promised to restrict developers’ access to user information as part of a plan to protect privacy. He also said sorry in full-page advertisements in British and U.S. newspapers.

     

  • U.S. confirms investigation into Facebook over data privacy scandal

    The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Monday confirmed that it was investigating Facebook over its privacy practices.

    The commission is looking into reports that Facebook failed to honour promises to comply with existing privacy protections, including a data privacy deal between the EU and the U.S. agreed in 2016.

    “The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers,” said Tom Pahl, Acting Director of the FTC, in a statement.

    Facebook Chief Executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has come under pressure over a data-mining scandal involving the British firm Cambridge Analytica.

    Information from about 50 million Facebook users was taken without their consent and used in work Cambridge Analytica did for U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, according to a whistle-blower, who helped set up the company.

    Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in Sunday newspapers in the U.S. and Britain to apologise.

    “We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can’t, we don’t deserve it,’’ Zuckerberg said in the apology. “I promise to do better for you.’’

    The privacy deal between the EU and the U.S. is known as Privacy Shield.

    It replaced an earlier framework that the EU’s top court struck down as insufficient after revelations in 2013 of mass spying by U.S. intelligence authorities.

    The deal aims to prevent the indiscriminate collection of Europeans’ private data via the internet.

     

  • Cambridge Analytica accepts probe into data practices

    Data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica has accepted a probe into how it handled about 50 million data of users on Facebook it obtained from Cambridge University Professor Aleksandr Kogan.

    Kogan reportedly harvested the Facebook data using a personality quiz app and shared it Cambridge Analytica.

    Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had since addressed some of the issues, with Cambridge Analytica saying the company will undergo an independent third-party audit to determine whether it still holds any data covertly obtained from Facebook users.

    The data analytics firm acting CEO, Alexander Tayler, apologized for the recent controversy, and said Cambridge Analytica believed the data had been obtained “in line with Facebook’s terms of service and data protection laws.”

    As it has claimed before, Cambridge Analytica says it destroyed the mishandled Facebook data years ago.

    Also, Facebook said recently it was working with a firm to conduct its own audit of Cambridge Analytica, but the investigation is on pause while the United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) works on its own probe.

    And, Tayler has said his company is cooperating with the ICO.

    He, while casting aspersions on the contractor Christopher Wylie, who has become a major source for reporting on Cambridge Analytica, also promised to release more information on the company’s practices.

    While discussing SCL Elections, Cambridge Analytica’s parent organization, he seemed to allude to comments made by his predecessor, Alexander Nix, about using entrapment for political gain.

    “We take the disturbing recent allegations of unethical practices in our non-US political business very seriously,” Tayler writes.

    “The Board has launched a full and independent investigation into SCL Elections’ past practices, and its findings will be shared publicly,” he added.

     

  • Data scandal: Buhari must act on Cambridge Analytica revelations

    After revelations emerged of data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, meddling with Nigeria’s teething democracy; that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is silent about the issues raised, is alarming.

    SCL Elections, parent company of Cambridge Analytica confirmed the data analytics firm was hired to play a role in the 2015 General Elections that brought the Buhari government to power with the company saying it was hired to provide advertising and marketing services only.

    However, several confessional statements made by employees of the firm, seven of them, with close knowledge of the 2015 election campaigns, showed that Cambridge Analytica did more than just providing advertising and marketing services.

    Employees of Cambridge Analytica, according to a report by the Guardian UK, actually worked effortlessly and ruthlessly to sway the 2015 general election votes in favour of a particular candidate.

    Describing how Cambridge Analytica worked with people they believed were Israeli computer hackers, they said the hackers offered Cambridge Analytica access to Buhari’s financial and medical records, and that they had accessed the private emails of two politicians who are now heads of state in the country.

    Also, Cambridge Analytica was reported to have used an astonishing and disturbing video to push the campaign, a malicious one, against Buhari.

    “Coming to Nigeria on February 15th, 2015. Dark. Scary. And very uncertain. Sharia for all. What would Nigeria look like if Sharia were imposed by Buhari?,” the Guardian UK report quotes the voiceover on the campaign video.

    “Its answer to that question is certainly dark. And scary. It’s also graphically, brutally, violent. One minute and 19 seconds of archive news footage from Nigeria’s troubled past set to a horror movie soundtrack. There are scenes of people being macheted to death. Their legs hacked off. Their skulls caved in,” the report stated of the campaign video.

    According to one of the employees, now a former contractor of the firm, “It was voter suppression of the most crude and basic kind. It was targeted at Buhari voters in Buhari regions to basically scare the shit out of them and stop them from voting”.

    According to the Guardian UK, the employees confessed Cambridge Analytica was paid an estimate of N1 billion by an undisclosed Nigerian billionaire barely six weeks to the elections to sway the votes.

    There is, however, no suggestion former President Goodluck Jonathan, who lost to Buhari in the election, knew of the covert operation.

    While SCL Elections has denied the confessional statements, President Buhari was also fingered in the report.

    SCL said “During an election campaign, it is normal for SCL Elections to meet with vendors seeking to provide services as a subcontractor. SCL Elections did not take possession of or use any personal information from such individuals for any purposes. SCL Elections does not use ‘hacked’ or ‘stolen’ data.

    “Members of the SCL Elections team that worked on the Nigeria campaign remained in country throughout the original campaigning period, although the election was rescheduled and SCL was not retained for the entirety of the extended campaign period. Team members left in accordance with the company’s campaign plan”.

    And then according to the Guardian UK report that also fingered Buhari, in the whole development, his team was alleged to have hired AKPD, the firm of former Barack Obama strategist David Axelrod, to push slick-social-media-heavy, Obama-esque message of hope in favour of Buhari.

    A Cambridge University professor named Aleksandr Kogan was reported as well to have harvested valuable information on the data of about 50 million Facebook users in the US to sway votes in favour of Donald Trump.

    Also, UK Channel released an expose on Monday which showed the managing director of Cambridge Analytica’s political division, Mark Turnbull, admitting to being responsible for every element of the highly contested campaigns of incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta during the 2013 and 2017 election cycles.

    In the video, Turnbull admitted to the channel’s undercover reporter that Cambridge Analytica had re-branded the Jubilee party by writing its manifesto and speeches, and conducting surveys, and the Kenyan government has shown a red eye to the firm.

    Sources said the same Israeli team that had worked on the Nigeria campaign obtained private information of the St Kitts and Nevis politician Timothy Harris at the time he was an opposition leader, and is now prime minister.

    Cambridge Analytica chief executive Alexander Nix, who has since been fired, was reported to have given staff instructions to handle material provided by computer hackers in the election that took place in St Kitts and Nevis.

    German and Israeli governments and a host of others have since launched investigations into the data practices of Facebook even when its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has opened up to say they are doing all they can to address the situation.

    In the wake of these disturbing developments with governments around the world having to express concerns about their democracies to demand answers from Facebook, especially on how safe data of their citizens are, and with the 2019 general elections at the corner; is it not imperative the Nigerian government act?