Mark Zuckerberg finally apologizes and says he's 'happy' to testify before Congress

Many people took notice of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s lack of an apology in his first public address Wednesday morning after news of the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke. In an interview with Laurie Segall on Anderson Cooper 360, Zuckerberg not only apologized, but said he regretted not being more forthcoming about the information breach. “So this was a major breach of trust, and I'm really sorry that this happened. You know, we have a basic responsibility to protect people's data. And if we can't do that, then we don't deserve to have the opportunity to serve people,” Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg also gave some surprising answers. He said whomever at Facebook is the most qualified to do so, they would be the ones testifying in front of Congress on any given issue. But he also said he’d do it himself, saying, “So the short answer is, is I'm happy to if it's the right thing to do.” More surprising was what he said in regard to Facebook being regulated. “I actually am not sure we shouldn't be regulated,” Zuckerberg said. “You know, I think in general, technology is an increasingly important trend in the world, and I actually think the question is more what is the right regulation rather than yes or no, should it be regulated?” Zuckerberg also admitted that Facebook was not prepared for the challenges the 2016 U.S. presidential election would bring. “I think what's clear is that in 2016, we were not as on top of a number of issues as we should have, whether it was Russian interference or fake news,” Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg went on to talk about the 2017 French presidential election, and the special election in Alabama during which Facebook deployed A.I. tools to detect and weed out bad actors. But he’s aware there will be more to deal with going forward. “I'm sure that there's, you know, V2, version two of whatever the Russian effort was in 2016. I'm sure they're working on that, and there are going to be some new tactics we make sure we observe and get in front of,” Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg is also aware of the responsibility that Facebook bears and will continue to do whatever is necessary to ensure the integrity of elections going forward. Zuckerberg said,”…we have a responsibility to do this not only for the 2018 midterms in the U.S., which are going to be a huge deal this year, and that's just a huge focus of us, but there's a big election in India this year. There's a big election in Brazil. There are big elections around the world, and you can bet we are really committed to doing everything that we need to to make sure that the integrity of those elections on Facebook is secured.”