Time to end privacy nightmare, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg told

Mark Zuckerberg has been warned he has an obligation to the world to prevent Facebook from turning into a privacy nightmare.

Mark Zuckerberg speaks to senator John Thune, centre, and his Republican colleague Chuck Grassley in Washington yesterday. Picture: AFP

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has been warned he has an obligation to the world to prevent the “American Dream” of Facebook from turning into a privacy nightmare.

During more than three hours of often testy questioning from senators on Capitol Hill, the Facebook founder conceded that his social network was flawed and that fundamental change was required to win back public trust.

“We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here,” a contrite Mr Zuckerberg told a packed joint hearing of the Senate judiciary and commerce committees.

In his long-awaited testimony, the 33-year-old billionaire began nervously but became more confident as he tried to explain the stumbles Facebook has experienced and what he plans to do to restore the company’s reputation.

“We are going through a ­broader philosophical shift in how we view our responsibilities as a company,” he said.

Inside the room protesters waved signs calling for better protection of privacy, while outside the Capitol stood 100 life-sized cutouts of Mr Zuckerberg wearing a T-shirt saying “Fix Facebook”.

Mr Zuckerberg conceded that self-regulation by Facebook was no longer enough and that he supported targeted laws to better protect privacy and personal data in the social media age. “My position is not that there should be no regulation. The real question is what is the right regulation,” he said when asked why his company should be trusted to self-regulate.

Mr Zuckerberg, who in past years was opposed to greater government oversight of Facebook, said it was “certainly worth discussing” whether US tech giants should be subjected to stricter privacy laws such as those about to be introduced in Europe.

Senator Bill Nelson, the ranking Democrat on the commerce committee, told Mr Zuckerberg bluntly: “If Facebook and other online companies will not or cannot fix these privacy invasions, then we will.”

During wide ranging testimony Mr Zuckerberg explained the mistakes Facebook had made in relation to content, privacy and transparency.

“It’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm,” he told the 44 senators. “That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy.”

Commerce committee chairman John Thune began the hearing by stating that Mr Zuckerberg had an obligation to prevent Facebook from becoming a “privacy nightmare”.

“Mr Zuckerberg, in many ways you and the company that you’ve created, the story you’ve created, represent the American Dream,” Senator Thune said. “At the same time, you have an obligation, and it’s up to you, to ensure that dream doesn’t become a privacy nightmare.”

Mr Zuckerberg conceded that most of Facebook’s 2.2 billion daily users probably didn’t fully understand what the company’s privacy policies were. “I don’t think that the average person likely reads that whole (Facebook privacy) document,” he said. “But I think that there are different ways that we can communicate that and have a responsibility to do so.”

Texas Republican Ted Cruz ­accused Facebook of being a politically biased platform which often censored the views of conservatives. Mr Zuckerberg disputed this, saying: “Our goal is certainly not to engage in political speech ... I’m very committed to making sure Facebook is a platform for all ideas.”

Mr Zuckerberg told senators he had initiated a range of privacy measures to ensure there was no repeat of the scandal involving the data of 87 million users being harvested and then misused by the company Cambridge Analytica.

He conceded Facebook made a mistake by failing to follow up with Cambridge Analytica to ensure that the company had fully ­destroyed the data of users. “We considered it a closed case,” he said. “In retrospect, that was ­clearly a mistake. We shouldn’t have taken their word for it.”

Mr Zuckerberg said of Facebook: “It’s not enough to just give people a voice, we have to make sure people aren’t using it to hurt people or spread misinformation.

“It’s not enough to give people control of their information, we have to make sure developers they’ve given it to are protecting it too.”

Mr Zuckerberg also revealed that Facebook employees had been interviewed by the team of special counsel Robert Mueller as part of the Russia investigation.

Mr Zuckerberg has conceded that Facebook was too slow to recognise how Russia was exploiting Facebook to try to influence the 2016 US presidential election.

“I don’t want anyone to use our tools to undermine democracy, that’s not what we stand for,” he said. “We were too slow to stop ­Russian interference and we’re working hard to get better.”

Mr Zuckerberg is due to give a second round of testimony early today, this time to the House of Representatives energy and commerce committees.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia.