It's inevitable that there will be some regulation - Zuckerberg

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pauses while testifying before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 10, 2018, about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pauses while testifying before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 10, 2018, about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Published Apr 11, 2018

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Washington - Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said

Wednesday he believes the US government will pass more regulation

affecting the operations of the social media platform he founded.

"I think it's inevitable that there will be some regulation" as the

internet grows in importance around the world, Zuckerberg, 33, told

members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Zuckerberg is on his second day of testifying before Congress over a

massive data privacy breach for which he has repeatedly apologized.

While his explanation of the data breach and Facebook's response

played prominently in Tuesday's testimony in the Senate, on Wednesday

the topic turned quickly to regulation.

Several members of the committee raised the possibility of government

oversight, with some saying it's necessary to prevent exposures like

the one involving Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook recently had to admit that data belonging to some 87 million

users was misused after some users downloaded an app that later

shared their data and that of their friends with the research firm.

Zuckerberg cautioned that any legislation they propose to prevent

such data breaches could hurt start-up companies.

"I think a lot of times regulation puts in place rules that a large

company like ours can easily comply with, but that small start-ups

can't," Zuckerberg said.

One committee member said he believes it's time for Congress to pass

legislation.

"If all we do is have a hearing and nothing happens, then we haven't

accomplished anything," said Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New

Jersey.

DPA

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