Admitting mistakes, Mark Zuckerberg says he's still the best person to run Facebook
Should Mark Zuckerberg still run Facebook (FB) following recent months of scandal and controversy?
Facebook’s chief executive and co-founder gave an unqualified “Yes” when asked if he was “still the best person to run” the company, during a press call with reporters on Wednesday afternoon. His second such call with the media in two weeks.
“I think life is about learning from mistakes and what you need to do moving forward,” Zuckerberg explained during the call.
Facebook conducted the call just hours after it disclosed that the information of as many as 87 million people — 37 million more than initially reported — may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica. In the weeks since the scandal surfaced in mid-March, Facebook stock has tumbled 16% to $155 a share, all while critics have called for government regulation.
Facebook, meanwhile, is now running a full-court press after a shaky start: having Zuckerberg interview with numerous outlets, as well as taking steps to reign in the personal data made available to third-party developers. The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee also announced on Wednesday Zuckerberg will testify about the Cambridge Analytica matter on April 11.
Zuckerberg took a humble tact when addressing the scandal during the Wednesday call.
“Our job was to give them tools — it was largely to give them responsibility,” Zuckerberg added. “Given what we know today and across all of our tools and what our place is in society, we need to take a broader role of responsibility. We need to take full responsibility for the outcome for how people use those tools as well.”
But while public scrutiny may be taking its toll on Facebook’s stock, the #deletefacebook movement which calls for users to delete their accounts and advertisers to walk away hasn’t made a significant impact on Facebook’s massive 2.13 billion user base or advertising dollars.
“I don’t think there’s been a meaningful impact we’ve observed,” Zuckerberg said. “But look, it’s not good… It still speaks to people feeling like this is a massive breach of trust, and we have a lot of work to do to repair that.”
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JP Mangalindan is the Chief Tech Correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Email story tips and musings to [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
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