On Sunday, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he wanted Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify over the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
“And frankly, Mr. Zuckerberg needs to testify,” Warner said on Meet the Press, after voicing concerns about how misinformation is used to manipulate people on social media. This comes after Facebook suspended the Britain-based political firm Cambridge Analytica because it reportedly, without permission, took private information from about 50 million Facebook users to use in its work helping Donald Trump run for president in 2016. In an article from March 17, The New York Times reported that the data leak had not been previously disclosed. The outlet said it interviewed a half-dozen former employees and contractors for Cambridge Analytica, and emails and documents reportedly showed that the company still had “most or all” of the ill-gotten information.
The news seriously dented Facebook’s public value, with its stock dropping about 25 points between March 16 and 23, and its value dropping almost $50 billion.
The company took out full-page ads in newspapers worldwide on Sunday. The ad, in the form of an apology letter signed by Zuckerberg, promised Facebook users that “I promise to do better for you.” All this is certainly doing no favors for his rumored ambition to run for president.
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