META Meta Platforms Inc

By Natalia Drozdiak, Sam Schechner and Valentina Pop 

BRUSSELS -- Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday apologized to European Union lawmakers over the company's failure to sufficiently combat fake news and foreign interference in elections or to prevent developers from misusing user information.

Speaking at a hearing at the European Parliament on how the social network handles Europeans' data, Mr. Zuckerberg echoed his recent testimony before U.S. Congress on similar issues. "We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility -- that was a mistake and I'm sorry for it," he said. "I'm committed to getting this right."

European lawmakers had stepped up calls for Mr. Zuckerberg to come answer questions in Brussels following his testimony in the U.S. The demands highlighted spreading fallout of the Cambridge Analytica scandal to Europe, where Facebook and its Silicon Valley rivals have faced regulatory pressure for years.

Mr. Zuckerberg outlined steps the company has taken since the revelations that data-analytics firm Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained the personal information of as many as 87 million Facebook users. He said Facebook has more tightly restricted the data that outside apps can access and has suspended 200 apps it suspects of having misused user data shared on or through Facebook.

He also explained how Facebook is working to more broadly protect the integrity of elections, including by encouraging voters to go to the polls and by working with governments to identify misinformation threats in real time. The issue is of interest to MEPs, who face elections next spring.

"In one year's time, 400 millions of Europeans will be voting," said European Parliament President Antonio Tajani. "We hope that each of those votes will be genuinely free votes."

Mr. Zuckerberg also stressed Facebook's commitment to Europe, announcing that it would hire an additional 3,000 employees in the region to reach a total of 10,000 by the end of the year.

Seated around a hoop-shaped table in an intimate wood-paneled room in the European Parliament, roughly a dozen European lawmakers started to individually interrogate the chief executive, who said he would respond once all lawmakers had posed their questions.

Manfred Weber, the leader of the largest group in the European Parliament, the European People's Party, said the assurances of the U.S. tech giant are insufficient and more regulation is needed. Mr. Weber also raised the issue of Facebook's market dominance: "We should discuss breaking up the Facebook monopoly. Can you convince me not to do so?"

Liberal MEP Guy Verhofstadt also dug into the question of the company's market power, stressing that self-regulation wouldn't be enough to control the company. "We have a big problem here," he said, asking Mr. Zuckerberg to decide whether he wants to be remembered "in fact as a genius who created a digital monster that is destroying our democracies and our societies."

The hearing comes amid greater scrutiny of tech giants by authorities and regulators around the world, who are increasingly looking to Europe for direction on how to rein in the Silicon Valley firms over their privacy policies, market power, tax payments and other issues.

One such piece of legislation, the EU's new privacy law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, enters into force Friday. Mr. Zuckerberg was set to face tough questions over how the social network would comply with the law.

Brussels is the first stop for Mr. Zuckerberg as he seeks to calm tensions with European officials. On Wednesday, Mr. Zuckerberg will travel to Paris, where he will attend a government-organized lunch with executives from Uber Technologies Inc., Microsoft Corp. and other firms about using technology to promote the common good, and Thursday he will speak at a tech conference.

In Paris, Mr. Zuckerberg will have a private meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. "No subject will be avoided," an official at the French presidential palace said of the meeting with Mr. Zuckerberg. "The president is very direct."

EU and European national regulators for years have been among the most active world-wide in trying to bridle Facebook. A working group of several EU data-protection watchdogs brought sanctions against the company for prior changes to its privacy policies, though some of those decisions were thrown out in court. Some EU regulators are also investigating the company's use of data about users of chat app WhatsApp, which it bought in 2014 for $22 billion.

The company has also faced criticism in Europe for its handling of hate speech and terrorist propaganda. The EU has pushed Facebook and other social-media companies to speed up their removal of extremist propaganda and hate speech under threat of new legislation. Germany last year passed a new law threatening social-media companies with fines of up to EUR50 million ($59 million) if they fail to quickly delete hate speech and other illegal content.

Persuading Mr. Zuckerberg to speak was a victory for the 751-member parliament, which is the EU's most democratic institution but wields little power. Facebook has so far spurned a similar invitation from the U.K. parliament. Mr. Zuckerberg had initially agreed to answer questions in a closed-door meeting. That sparked outrage from many EU politicians and commentators, prompting the parliament to negotiate an agreement to webcast the event.

Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com, Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com and Valentina Pop at valentina.pop@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 22, 2018 14:09 ET (18:09 GMT)

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