"How many times can you say you're sorry before we stop caring?
If Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's globe-trotting apology tour over privacy violations, election meddling and allowing hate speech to flourish on Facebook is any sign, the answer is not that many.
After telling the US Senate, the US House of Representatives, Facebook's 2.2 billion users, the company's investors, 5,000 developers and loads of advertisers that he screwed up, Zuckerberg said he was sorry yet again on Tuesday when he admitted to the European Parliament that fake news and misuse of Facebook users' private information has become a serious problem for the world's largest social network.
But when it came to anything substantive about European privacy laws, concerns Facebook may be turning into a monopoly and how people can avoid their data being tracked by Facebook even if they're not a user, Zuck didn't have a lot to say.
European regulators ran out of patience.
"I asked you six 'yes' and 'no' questions, and I got not a single answer," said Guy Verhofstadt, a Parliament member representing Belgium. "Yes," someone in the room echoed in support. Others chimed in. One lawmaker interrupted Zuckerberg's closing statements to ask if Facebook is a monopoly. Another complained about the Facebook CEO's lackluster responses.
"I'll make sure we follow up and get you answers to those," Zuckerberg said, deferring to his team to provide more complete responses, just as he did with Congress in April.
That's what we heard, but what we're seeing with EU regulators' reaction is an uncomfortable reality for Zuck and Co.
Over the past two months, Facebook has scrambled to contain the fallout from the spiraling scandal that began with Russian meddling in the US election and then hit a fever pitch when the company admitted in March that as many as 87 million user profiles may have been sold to a UK-based political consultancy called Cambridge Analytica."
Mark Zuckerberg's worldwide apology tour for Facebook hits a snag in the EU - CNET
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