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Mark Zuckerberg apologizes to EU officials for Cambridge Analytica scandal

Zuckerberg agreed on having his address in Brussels live-streamed.
Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg (C) leaves during a break in a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill April 11, 2018 in Washington, DC.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and co-founder of Facebook, could face harsher questioning Tuesday before the European Parliament than he did last month in Congress.

Originally, Zuckerberg's appearance had been expected to be a closed-door meeting. But Antonio Tajani, president of European Parliament, confirmed Monday on Twitter that Zuckerberg agreed on having his address in Brussels live-streamed.

1:49 p.m. ET

The session ends with several members objecting to its closing without specific answers to some questions, such as sharing of data between Facebook and WhatsApp and how could non-users opt out of Facebook data collection.

EP President Tajani serves as a middle-man, asking Zuckerberg if he can supply answers to each question within the next few days. Zuckerberg says yes.

1:40 p.m. ET

Facebook expects to be compliant with GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation, which restricts what kind of data companies can use and store on EU citizens and what they can do with the data, when it goes into effect Friday, Zuckerberg says. "We have had a large team working on this."

Responding to some committee questions on political bias on Facebook, Zuckerberg says, "we are committed to being a platform for all ideas."

He committed that Facebook has not and will not make decisions on content and content rankings by political persuasion.

1:36 p.m. ET

On competition, Zuckerberg said, "from where I sit it feels like there are new competitors coming up every day."

And as for its business model, which is advertising, there's competition, too, he says, saying that Facebook owns 6% of the global advertising market.

1:34 p.m. ET

About regulation, Zuckerberg says, "I don’t think (the question is) whether or not there should be regulation, the question is what is the right regulation. ... Some sort of regulation is important and inevitable."

1:30 p.m. ET

Security of content about elections, Zuckerberg says, "is one of our top priorities ... making sure we prevent anyone from trying to interfere in the elections like the Russians were able to in the U.S. in the presidential elections in 2016."

Facebook has evolved to be able to take down 580 million fake accounts soon after they were registered, he says.

1:25 p.m. ET

Zuckerberg begins answering questions. He says that Facebook has moved from a reactive stance to content with users flagging improper content to a proactive one.

In addition to tens of thousands of employees reviewing content, Facebook's AI systems now find 99% of terrorist content, he says. "We will never be perfect on this. ... It's an arms race and will have to work constantly to stay ahead."

1:10 p.m. ET

Nicolas Bay of France, head of Europe of Nations and Freedom party, said that Facebook holds "a monopoly position in many parts of the world."

Some online groups have improperly had their voices shut down, he said, including a group with 200,000 users talking about migration across Europe. It smacks of totalitarianism," he said.

1:05 p.m. ET

U.K.'s Nigel Farage, head of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy party, asks whether Facebook is truly "a neutral platform."

He voices concern that mainstream conservative views are being muffled. "Do we need a social media bill of rights to protect free speech?" he asks.

1 p.m. ET

Germany's Gabriele Zimmer, head of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left parties, asks why Zuckerberg did not agree to a public meeting.

Mr. Tajani notes that Zuckerberg had not been invited to a larger meeting, so he had not actually turned down a public meeting.

The original Facebook was originally designed to rate college students by looks, she says. "How has it changed in the meantime looking at discrimination and sexism against women?"

Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium, head of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe compares, Zuckerberg to the head of the "out of control" Internet company in the book The Circle.

He asks Zuckerberg "how will you be remembered?" Will it be like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or as someone who created "a digital monster?"

12:48 p.m. ET

Syed Kamall, a member from U.K., and head of the European Conservatives and Reformists party, says that Facebook users have to take some responsibility for what they do on the social network. "But what happens if I don’t have a Facebook account? How can non-users stop Facebook from connecting their data?"

(Zuckerberg will answer all the questions at the end after the members of the Conference of Presidents all ask their question.)

12:43 p.m. ET

Manfred Weber, member from Germany and head of the European People's Party, tells Zuckerberg that "to apologize is a good thing" and his appearance shows respect to European consumers. "But you know this is not enough and you said this in your presentation. Now it’s about acting."

Germany's Udo Bullmann, head of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, asks whether Facebook is prepared to "completely comply with the new regulations (the GDPR)" within the next three days when it takes effect.

12:40 p.m. ET

Zuckerberg says, "We’re committed to Europe," noting that Dublin, Ireland is the site of its European headquarters and that London has its biggest engineering team outside the U.S.

By the end of 2018, Facebook will employ 10,000 people across 12 European cities — up from 7,000 today, he says.

12:36 p.m. ET.

Zuckerberg notes that Facebook has worked with officials in Germany and France to combat election fraud involving malicious ads and misleading news stories.

"The playbook for fighting this is removing the ways in which spammers can make money," he said.

Facebook now bans sites that regularly run fake news so they can’t make money, he says. And fewer stories are showing up in news feeds.

12:30 p.m. ET

Zuckerberg says Facebook has more tightly restricted the data that apps can get in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

And the social network has improved tools for users, he says. An investigation of all apps that used data prior to Facebook's strengthening of data sharing in 2014 has led to suspension of more than 200 apps, he says.

12:27 p.m. ET

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes opening remarks.

"Europeans make up a large and incredibly important part of our global community. Many of the values Europeans care most deeply about are values we share: from the importance of human rights and the need for community to a love of technology, with all the potential it brings."

Still, he tells the EU Conference of presidents that it has "become clear over the last couple of years that we haven't done enough to prevent the tools we've built from being used for harm as well. ... That was a mistake, and I’m sorry for it."

Zuckerberg is expected to echo many of the same messages he delivered last month before U.S. Congress. Many of the questions then were about the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which 87 million Facebook users data was misappropriated after it was gathered through a personality research app. Date from as many as 2.7 million European Facebook users were involved in the incident, Facebook has said.

Another hot topic: Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russia's influence on the 2016 presidential election, in February issued indictments of 13 Russian nationals and three entities including the Internet Research Agency, for using Facebook and other social media networks to attempt to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

"Whether it’s fake news, foreign interference in elections or developers misusing people’s information, we didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibilities," Zuckerberg is expected to say. "That was a mistake, and I’m sorry."

But European officials could be even tougher than the U.S. on privacy, as the European Union is set this week to enact new privacy rules, the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR, which restricts what kind of data companies can use and store on EU citizens and what they can do with the data.

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