Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s public statement on Cambridge Analytica overwhelmingly failed to quell concerns, said Ina Fried, Chief Technology Correspondent at Axios.
“[The company] did a good job of hitting their talking points and they were very consistent,” Fried told Cheddar. “But I don’t think that’s the real measure...There’s a lot still to be answered.
“People want to know what are they doing now for the threats that they’re facing. We’re still waiting to see if are they capable of stopping things like misinformation and election fraud.”
After five days of silence, Zuckerberg gave interviews with four media outlets on Wednesday. The key takeaways included an explicit apology, his willingness to testify in front of Congress, and his openness to regulations on ads on Facebook.
The public mea culpa stems from revelations last week that a data company, Cambridge Analytica, had used Facebook to harvest information on tens of millions of Americans without their permission. That data was then packaged into personality profiles and sold to President Trump’s campaign team during the 2016 election.
In an effort to build back trust with users, Zuckerberg also posted a statement on his Facebook profile with a detailed timeline of what happened and a few changes to privacy and data policies, including an audit of thousands of apps on its platform.
But that isn’t enough, said Alex Shepard, staff writer at The New Republic.
“They would need to open themselves up to an external audit...to look at how these groups and apps are using their data, and they’re not going to do that.”
The apology didn’t do well with investors either. Facebook stock dipped nearly another three percent Thursday, continuing the stocks worst week in years.
Meanwhile in D.C., lawmakers continued to push for Zuckerberg to testify before Congress.
“The notion that these large platforms that have such dominance in the marketplace are going to police themselves and respect the privacy interests of the American people has clearly not worked,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) told Cheddar Thursday.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/mark-zuckerberg-tries-to-smooth-things-over-with-billions-of-friends).
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
Aurimas Sabulis, CEO of Dextall, unveils how AI‑driven prefabricated façades slash design time by 80%, labor by 87%, and accelerate affordable housing delivery.
Online broker Robinhood Markets will join the S&P 500 index Online broker Robinhood Markets will join the S&P 500 index as its stock rides higher on a cryptocurrency wave.
Trump wants interest rates to plummet to make borrowing cheaper and boost growth. Fed chair Jerome Powell and his allies say not so fast, they need to bala
