Springfield Republican: US Sen. Ed Markey calls on Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to testify before Congress on Cambridge Analytica
By Shannon Young
syoung@repub.com
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, urged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Tuesday to brief congressional lawmakers following reports that data firm Cambridge Analytica accessed the private information of millions of the social media giant’s users.
The Massachusetts Democrat, who recently called on a Senate panel to hold a hearing on the issue, told MSNBC that he believes Zuckerberg should answer to lawmakers on how Cambridge Analytica was able to “harvest private information from more than 50 million profiles.”
“It’s time for Mark Zuckerberg to come to Congress and testify as to what the privacy protections are that Facebook has on the books and how this happened: How did Cambridge Analytica break through this world of social media that we have in our country and grab 50 million Americans’ private information?” he said. “We need to know the answers for that from Mark Zuckerberg, himself.”
Shortly after Markey called for Zuckerberg to testify on the incident, NBC News reported that Facebook will brief multiple congressional committees on the incident involving Cambridge Analytica.
Markey, on Monday, penned a letter to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee chairman and ranking member asking them to convene a hearing in response to reports that Cambridge Analytica accessed millions of Facebook users’ private data.
The senator argued that the panel “should move quickly to hold a hearing on this incident, which has allegedly violated the privacy of tens of millions of Americans.”
Chairman Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, and other committee members, in turn, sent letters to Zuckerberg and Strategic Communications Laboratories Group CEO and Director Nigel Oakes on Monday seeking information and a briefing on the use and sharing of Facebook user data.
Facebook announced Friday that it had suspended Cambridge Analytica, a firm reportedly used in President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and SCL Group for using improperly collected user data.
The social media company, however, stressed that “the claim this is a data breach is completely false.”
“People knowingly provided their information, no systems were infiltrated, and no passwords or sensitive pieces of information were stolen or hacked,” said Paul Grewal, Facebook’s vice president and deputy general counsel.
Cambridge Analytica has denied using Facebook data and personality targeted advertising as part of the services it provided to Trump’s campaign.
It added that while the company received Facebook data and data derivatives from Global Science Reserach, it deleted all information in cooperation with Facebook after that company had broken its contract with Cambridge Analytica.
“Cambridge Analytica only receives and uses data that has been obtained legally and fairly,” officials said in a statement. “Our robust data protection policies comply with U.S., international, European Union and national regulations.”
