- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday.
- He was there to explain the role his company played in the improper handling of user data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
- During the questioning, Zuckerberg confirmed thathe was among the as many as 87 million users whose personal information was improperly obtained by Cambridge Analytica.
- Zuckerberg didn’t specify whether he downloaded the app that harvested his data himself, or whether his information was compromised via a friend.
Not even Facebook’s CEO was safe in the Cambridge Analytica data-harvesting scandal.
During his second round of Congressional hearings on Wednesday, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) asked CEO Mark Zuckerberg a string of questions about Facebook’s responsibility to users, demanding “Yes” or “No” answers for the of her allotted four minutes.
When asked whether his data was among the 87 million users whose information was compromised, Zuckerberg answered “yes,” providing no further explanation.
Only 270,000 users actually installed the personality quiz that data analytics company Cambridge Analytica used to gather information used to sway voter decisions during the 2016 election. The quiz harvested the personal data of those users' friends, bringing the total number of those affected to 87 million users, meaning there's no way to know for sure whether Zuckerberg himself downloaded the application or had a Facebook friend who did it instead.
Zuckerberg will be answering questions from 55 members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce about Facebook's responsibility to users and the related scandals the company may have been involved in.
You can keep up with Wednesday's testimony on our live blog, or catch up on yesterday's joint hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation here.