Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg issued a statement saying there's been a "major breach of trust," referring to his platform's infiltration of data mining companies affecting over 50 million users' accounts.
After writing the statement, the Facebook founder made a public apology on CNN and also imparted that he was "sure someone's trying to" use the social media platform to interfere with the upcoming midterm election.
"There are going to be some new tactics that we need to make sure that we observe and get in front of," he told CNN's Laurie Segall in Wednesday's interview.
The Menlo Park, California based company vowed to prevent the spreading of fake news after the 2016 U.S. presidential election and promised to double their security team members from 10,000 employees in 2017 to 20,000 by the end of this year.
"I'm sure that there's v2, version two, of whatever the Russian effort was in 2016, I'm sure they're working on that," he said. "And there are going to be some new tactics that we need to make sure that we observe and get in front of."
What we see are a lot of folks trying to sow division. That was a major tactic that we saw Russia use in the 2016 election. Actually most of what they did was not directly as far as we could tell from the data that we've seen. It was not directly about the election. It was more about dividing people.
@cnntech @jaketapper I would like to understand the idea of having FB employees working in political campaigns. Is… https://t.co/tlPEgbKJXu— Stephanie Armstrong (@Stephanie Armstrong) 1521735014.0
Zuckerberg said fake accounts like those touting pro and anti-immigration reform pitted people against each other. But he's confident that new tactics involving the tracing of bogus accounts through employing A.I. tools will improve the company's security systems in the future.
At the top of the exclusive interview, the 33-year-old apologized over the Cambridge Analytica debacle. "This was a major breach of trust, and I'm really sorry that this happened."
@cnntech @jaketapper Give me a fucking break with this headline. He knew for 2 years what Cambridge Analytica was d… https://t.co/BJ7LOxkxVP— Marie Enderle (@Marie Enderle) 1521721478.0
The company is ensuring similar breaches don't happen again by placing restrictions on how developers access information.
We need to make sure there aren't any other Cambridge Analyticas out there or folks who have improperly accessed data. We're going to review thousands of apps.
Facebook changed their policies to protect user data, but Zuckerberg wished he'd taken steps earlier.
I've made every kind of mistake that you can make. I mean I started this when I was so young and inexperienced, right? I made technical errors and business errors. I hired the wrong people. I trusted the wrong people. I've probably launched more products that have failed than most people will in their lifetime.
Zuckerberg shared an emotional moment during the interview.
I used to think that the most important thing to me by far was ... having the greatest positive impact across the world that I can, and now I really just care about building something that my girls are gonna grow up and be proud of me for.
But people saw crocodile tears.
@cnntech @jaketapper He's only emotional because his stocks are dropping.— jenniferrobin.gallery (@jenniferrobin.gallery) 1521729636.0
The apology just wasn't sufficient enough for the betrayal.
It is time. #deletefacebook— Brian Acton (@Brian Acton) 1521586819.0
What's not in Zuckerberg's 937-word statement: No pledge to address Congress No discussion of regulation No reck… https://t.co/XRGht8xynA— Ari Melber (@Ari Melber) 1521665183.0
@AriMelber And also no accountability and no authenticity. In other words, a vintage Silicon Valley corporate statement.— The Catstitution (@The Catstitution) 1521665315.0
Mark Zuckerberg’s apology rings hollow. Facebook has almost single-handedly destroyed our constitutional right to p… https://t.co/ly3Je1OVUM— Eugene Gu, MD (@Eugene Gu, MD) 1521664013.0