Zuckerberg Makes A Statement
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is invited to speak by Antonio Tajani, the president of European Parliament. Zuckerberg talks about the strategy that Facebook will implement to ensure all users and their data are secure.
“We're making advertising much more transparent on the platform,” he said.
He further added that Facebook is testing new tools in Canada and Ireland which shows all the ads that the user will see. “They can choose to turn off the ones they don't want to see,” says Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg Leaves the Room
As Mark looks to end the session and make his way out of the room, few members raise concerns about how this so-called meeting didn’t turn out to be the debate they wanted. To which Zuckerberg refuses to answer and assures them of a response by his team in writing.
That’s the end of the short appearance in front of the European Parliament for the Facebook CEO, which honestly didn’t give us much clarity on whether Facebook and WhatsApp will continue to share data with each other.
On Facebook's Apparent Political Bias
“I can commit to you here today that we have not and will not make decisions about what content is allowed or how we do ranking on the basis of political orientation,” Zuckerberg assured, when asked about Facebook and its recent involvement in events like elections.
He even referred to the point that Facebook has made multiple changes to make sure users see more content from their family and friends. “We’ve made a number of changes this year to ensure we’re showing people’s friends and families content more than content in general. It is not targeting any specific political ideology,” he added.
Another Cambridge Analytica Out There?
Most people over the past few months have asked Zuckerberg and Co, as to how they will make sure that no other developer will be able to access users’ data.
“Since 2014 our platform has gone through changes which makes sure developers can't get access to data on our platform,” Zuckerberg assured European Parliament.
He also highlighted that Facebook’s team has taken down over 200 apps and are investigating some more to ensure that no other company is able to misuse data of its users.
“This is not any different from how we have worked before, as we had people reporting such issues. Now we are proactively taking steps, even before someone reports to us about it,” Zuckerberg added.
Facebook to Comply With GDPR
“We will be fully compliant with GDPR which starts from May 25 in Europe.” That was Zuckerberg reassuring concerns which were shared by multiple members of the parliament earlier on Tuesday.
He also admitted that “Facebook has always paid taxes in all the countries it operates and Facebook is building two data centres in Europe to comply with GDPR.”