Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) found and CEO Mark Zuckerberg completed his second day of testimony before U.S. Congress on April 11. Facebook stock shot up over 4% in the previous day as Zuckerberg parried questions from Republicans and Democrats over Facebook’s policies. The stock is still down 6.4% in 2018 thus far.
The company has been throttled by the media following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Zuckerberg began his opening statement by admitting Facebook had erred in failing to comprehend its “responsibility” as a social media giant.
Zuckerberg boasted about a “philosophical shift” Facebook had undertaken in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. election. He pointed to the development of its artificial intelligence in policing its platform going forward. This allows Facebook to more efficiently screen posts in its campaign of user censorship. “By the end of this year we’ll have more than 20,000 people working on security and content review,” Zuckerberg said. “So when content gets flagged to us we have those people look at it.”
In its most recent quarterly earnings Facebook reported a decline in its monthly active users in North America for the first time since its public listing. A campaign to boycott Facebook emerged in aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Lawmakers are threatening to take a bite out of its advertising revenue with new policies, and its censorship campaign has the potential to alienate more of its user base.
