--- title: Mark Zuckerberg Tells Congress He's Sorry description: Mark Zuckerberg took responsibility on Tuesday afternoon for how his website's resources have been improperly employed for political means. canonical: https://time.com/5235181/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-congress-testimony-sorry/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-04-10T19:55:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:29.469Z article:section: Politics og:title: Mark Zuckerberg Tells Congress He's Sorry og:description: "It was my mistake, and I’m sorry." og:url: https://time.com/5235181/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-congress-testimony-sorry/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc700b21f5c9a98cb/69892d464ee2620bc431173d/gettyimages-944359356.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Testifies At Joint Senate Commerce/Judiciary Hearing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mark Zuckerberg Tells Congress He's Sorry twitter:description: "It was my mistake, and I’m sorry." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc700b21f5c9a98cb/69892d464ee2620bc431173d/gettyimages-944359356.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mark Zuckerberg Tells Congress He's Sorry > Sponsored content. 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Ted Cruz Questions Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg About Political Censorship_ by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Apr 10, 2018 7:55 PM UTC  Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Apr 10, 2018 7:55 PM UTC In his first appearance before Congress since he launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room 14 years ago, Mark Zuckerberg [took responsibility](http://time.com/5234365/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-congressional-inquisition/) on Tuesday afternoon for how his social network has been improperly used for political means, insisting that the company is working to prevent future malfeasance. The 33-year-old Zuckerberg appeared nervous but contrite as he took the stand before a rare joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees, which together comprise nearly half of the members of the Senate on whole. “It was my mistake, and I’m sorry,” he said. “I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.” “We’re undergoing a broader philosophical shift about how we view our role as a company,” he said. “For the first 12 and 13 years we were focused on building tools. It’s not enough to just build tools. We need to make sure that they’re used for good.” His appearance, which was expected to last several hours, was a dramatic culmination of months of controversy over how Facebook allowed its medium to be misused during the 2016 presidential election. Last year, it was learned that Russian actors [relied](http://time.com/5004367/facebook-google-twitter-congress-russia/) on the platform to foster political discord in the heat of the 2016 campaign, [using Facebook advertisements](http://time.com/4783932/inside-russia-social-media-war-america/) and pages to disseminate misinformation. Several weeks ago, media outlets reported that [Cambridge Analytica](http://time.com/money/5233109/facebook-privacy-tool-cambridge-analytica/), a data-mining company with ties to the Trump campaign and other Republican entities, had acquired from Facebook the private data of nearly 100 million of the site’s users. Once praised as a tech revolutionary, Zuckerberg has since been left to answer for his site’s missteps, and what the fallout elucidates about the role of social media in contemporary American life. The 42 senators who sat on the joint committee served as the mouthpiece for many of these questions on Tuesday, pressing Zuckerberg on how the company would rectify its past mistakes and how they, as lawmakers, should act to prevent them from happening again. “The company you created represents the American dream,” Sen. John Thune, the South Dakota Republican who chairs the Senate’s commerce committee, said. “Many are inspired by what you’ve done. At the same time, you have an obligation to make sure that dream does not become a privacy nightmare for the millions who use Facebook.” “These stories touch on the very foundation of the internet economy and the way that these companies make money,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, said. Though Zuckerberg appeared penitent, he also seemed to choose his words cautiously when delivering his responses. When Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, asked Zuckerberg if he could confirm reports that Facebook recorded its users’ internet browsing history even after they logged out of the site, Zuckerberg waffled, telling Wicker that he needed to check with his team before giving a definitive answer but noting that he knows “that people use cookies on the internet and you can probably correlate activity between sessions. We do that for a number of reasons, including security and measuring ads.” But lawmakers seemed unsatisfied by several of his explanations. “What do we tell our constituents, given what’s happened here, why we should let you self-regulate?” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said. “My position is not that there should be no regulation,” Zuckerberg said. “I think the real question as the internet becomes more important in people’s lives it what kind of regulation is appropriate.” ## Transcript There are a great many Americans who I think are deeply concerned that Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship. There have been numerous instances with Facebook In May of 2016, Gizmodo reported that Facebook had purposefully and routinely suppressed conservative stories from trending news, including stories about CPAC, including stories about Mitt Romney, including stories about the Lois Lerner IRS scandal, including stories about Glenn Beck. In addition to that, Facebook has Initially shut down the Chick- Fil- A appreciation day page, has blocked a post of a Fox News reporter, has blocked over two dozen Catholic pages, and most recently, blocked Trump supporter's Diamond and Silk's page With 1. 2 million Facebook followers. After determining their content and brand were, quote unsafe to the community. To a great many Americans, that appears to be a pervasive pattern of political bias, do you agree with that assessment? Senator, let me say a few things about this. First, I understand where that concern is coming from, because Facebook and the tech industry are located in Silicon Valley, which is an extremely left- leaning place. And this is actually a concern that I have and that I try to root out in the company is making sure that we don't have Any bias in the work that we do. And I think that it is a fair concern that people would at least wonder about it. So let me ask this question. Are you aware of any ad or page that has been taken down from Planned Parenthood? Senator, I'm not, but let me just. Can I finish? How about moveon. org? Sorry? How about MoveOn. org? I'm not specifically aware of those cases. How about any Democratic candidate for office? I'm not specifically aware. I mean, I'm not sure. In your testimony, you say that you have 15 to 20, 000 people working on security and content review Do you know the political orientation of those 15 to 20 thousand people engage in content review? No senator we do not generally ask people about their political orientation when they are joining the company. So as CEO have you ever made hiring or firing decisions base on political positions or what candidates they supported? No. Why was Pomerlocki fired? That is a specifc personel matter that seems like it would be inappropriate to speak to -> You just made a specific representation that you didn't make decisions based on political views. Well -> Is that accurate? I can commit that it was not because of a political view. Do you know of those 15 to 20 thousand people engaged in content review How many, if any, have ever supported financially a Republican candidate for office? Senator, I do not know that. Your testimony says, it is not enough that we just connect people. We have to make sure those connections are positive. It says we have to make sure people aren't using their voice to hurt people or spread misinformation. We have a responsibility not just to build tools, to make sure those tools are used for good. Mr. Zuckerberg, do you feel it's your responsibility to assess users whether they are good and positive connections or ones that those 15 to 20 thousand people deem unacceptable or deplorable. Senator are you asking me personally? Facebook. Senator I think that there are a number of things that we would all agree are clearly bad. Foreign interference in our elections, terrorism, self harm. Those are things. I'm talking about censorship. Well I think that you would probably agree that we should remove terrorist propoganda from the service. So that I agree, I think is clearly bad activity that we want to get down. And we generally proud of how well we do with that. What I can say, and I do wanna get this said before the end here, is that I'm very committed to making sure that Facebook is a platform for all ideas. That is a very important founding principle of what we do, and we are proud of the discourse and the different ideas that people can share on the service. And that is something that as long as I'm running the company. I'm gonna be committed to making sure is the case. 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