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21st Mar 2018

We made mistakes, Zuckerberg admits

The Facebook king says changes will be made following the Cambridge Analytica scandal

Oli Dugmore

The Facebook king says changes will be made following the Cambridge Analytica scandal

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has admitted the social network “made mistakes” over the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Taking, predictably, to Facebook he posted a 937 word status update pledging to make it harder for third parties to “harvest” user data.

He said it was a breach of trust “between Facebook and the people who share their data with us”.

“I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform,” Mr Zuckerberg said in a statement on his Facebook page.

Zuckerberg promised to investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of information before the platform was changed “to dramatically reduce data access” in 2014.

He said Facebook would conduct a full audit of any app with suspicious activity, ban any developer that did not agree to a thorough audit, ban developers that had misused personally identifiable information and “tell everyone affected by those apps.”

In a documentary aired on Channel 4 on Monday night, high-profile figures from Cambridge Analytica were filmed discussing the use of bribes, ex-spies, fake IDs and sex workers to influence elections.

The company reportedly harvested data from millions of Facebook users to deliver micro-targeted ads.

#DeleteFacebook has been trending on Twitter since and has been tweeted by the founder of WhatsApp, who sold his company to Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion.

The tech firm boss will be interviewed about the data scandal on CNN at 1:00am GMT on Thursday March 22.