Washington D.C., Apr 11, 2018 / 12:12 pm
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced questions from lawmakers about his company's censorship of Catholic content during his two-day congressional hearing following the revelation that millions of Facebook users' personal data had been compromised.
Zuckerberg apologized and said that the company "made a mistake" in blocking a Catholic theology degree advertisement by Franciscan University of Steubenville, when asked about it by Washington state Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers on the second day of questioning.
The ad, which featured a crucifix, was rejected by Facebook over Easter on the grounds that its content was "excessively violent" and "sensational." Facebook later apologized, saying that the ad had been blocked erroneously and did not violate terms of service. Zuckerberg on Wednesday emphasized the large number of ads that are reviewed daily by the Facebook team, saying, "I wouldn't extrapolate from a few examples to assume that the overall system is biased."
The tech CEO also expressed regret that he did not "take a broad enough view of our responsibility" to prevent tools from being used for harm, particularly with regards to "fake news, for foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy."