Mark Zuckerberg gave his first statement about the Facebook scandal, where Cambridge Analytica—a data firm with ties to Donald Trump—used the data to exploit voters' opinions with targeted ads during the 2016 presidential campaign.
"We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve you," read his Facebook post. "I've been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn't happen again. The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there's more to do, and we need to step up and do it."
Zuckerberg then went on to share a timeline dating back to 2007 on Facebook's past steps to protect and secure the information of their users including how they're dealing with the breach.
"We immediately banned them from using any of our services. Cambridge Analytica claims they have already deleted the data and has agreed to a forensic audit by a firm we hired to confirm this. We're also working with regulators as they investigate what happened," continued Zuckerberg's post. "This was a breach of trust between [Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr] Kogan, Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. But it was also a breach of trust between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it. We need to fix that."
In the meantime, several activists, including actor Jim Carrey, have called on others to #DeleteFacebook. It's uncertain if Zuckerberg's statement will quell users' apprehension in continuing to use the app.
