Zuckerberg hearing: Facebook founder attacked by US politicians for site's 'bias' and failure to protect users - as it happened

Mark Zuckerberg says his personal data was sold to 'malicious third parties'

After navigating nearly five hours of questions from 44 US senators on Tuesday about the abuse of citizen's data, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has done it all again on Wednesday.

Once again, he was attacked on a range of fronts: as well as the company's failure to protect its users data, politicians questioned the site's perceived bias against conservative voices, and its use for selling illegal materials like drugs.

The billionaire Facebook boss will testified before the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, which was seeking answers following revelations that Cambridge Analytica harvested personal information from 87 million Facebook profiles for the purpose of voter profiling.

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Key Points

• Zuckerberg appears before Congress from 7am PT (3pm GMT) to answer questions relating to data abuse of users
• Zuckerberg's opening remarks: "It was my mistake, and I’m sorry... I’m responsible for what happens here."
• Facebook founder says his data was sold to 'malicious third parties'
• Analysis: How EU privacy regulations may become a model for the US

[11 April 2018 17:40 · anthony.cuthbertson]

Facebook is "not in the business" of handing over a lot of information to the Russian government, Mr Zuckerberg says.

The Facebook CEO also notes that his company doesn't store any data in Russia - something the Russians aren't very happy about.

[11 April 2018 17:44 · Andrew Griffin]

Zuckerberg is being asked about "shadow profiles" – the information that Facebook gathers about people who don't use the site. He says that people can opt out of any data tracking – but it's pointed out to him that these people don't even use the site, so can't be seen to have opted in.

[11 April 2018 17:47 · Andrew Griffin]

The "shadow profile" questioning was perhaps the most awkward for him so far: it feels fairly clear that the public doesn't have the full story on that, and that Zuckerberg might not be giving over everything he knows.

But – as is the format of this thing – that came to a quick close and we're onto a different representative, and a different topic: fake news. Zuckerberg is back onto the material he's ready for, and doing well again.

[11 April 2018 17:53 · Andrew Griffin]

Paul Tonko, from New York, is laying into Mark Zuckerberg. Asking why people should trust Facebook again after their trust was shattered, and a range of other similar questions. But he's not really giving Zuckerberg the chance to actually answer, which means we're stuck in a little bit of grandstanding here.

[11 April 2018 17:58 · Andrew Griffin]

Gus Bilirakis, from Florida, is asking about a specific question on behalf of one of his constituents: they had a range of personal information posted online on an organisations' page, and couldn't get it taken down. He asks why that was the case – and why it wasn't removed until he got involved as a member of Congress.

Zuckerberg says that he thinks it's a question of AI and everything all over again. But Bilirakis asks when that will come – to which Zuckerberg doesn't really give an answer.

[11 April 2018 18:02 · Andrew Griffin]

Yvette Clarke from New York (who got Zuckerberg's name wrong) is asking whether the lack of diversity contributed towards the fact that Facebook has been slow to recognise problems including fake news.

Zuckerberg says that it didn't, but recognises that diversity (or lack thereof) is a big problem.

[11 April 2018 18:03 · Andrew Griffin]

One thing that's running through this hearing, but isn't actually related to the question at hand, is the various representatives who are asking about rural connectivity. This is something that Mark Zuckerberg rather likes to talk about – a lot more than data – and he has promised them that he'll get back to them about how Facebook will work to help people in rural areas get online. (Cynics say that getting people online is now the only way to get more people to join Facebook.)

[11 April 2018 18:07 · Andrew Griffin]

Zuckerberg has not been very forthcoming when people ask about punishment of his staff. Asked again whether anyone has been punished for the problems with data use, he says that he's not aware of the particular situation he's being asked about – but almost certainly wouldn't have answered anyway.

[11 April 2018 18:13 · Andrew Griffin]

Zuckerberg is asked about Facemash! (A "prank" website that he set up before Facebook.) He references the Social Network, which he says wasn't necessarily true. He says there was no relation between Facemash and Facebook.

Facemash, by the way – which he keeps saying was a prank – was the website that Zuckerberg made that would show pictures of two women and ask them to rank which was more attractive.

[11 April 2018 18:15 · Andrew Griffin]

Diamond and Silk are being brought up again! That's at least the third time in this hearing. This time around, we're being told they have a question for Zuckerberg:

"What is unsafe about two black women supporting Donald J Trump?"

He says that he's not up on the specifics of this situation, apparently because he's been preparing for this event.