Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg again says 'I'm sorry,' but that doesn't go far enough for some EU officials

Mike Snider | USA TODAY

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's mea culpa tour didn't quite go far enough for some European Union officials in Brussels Tuesday.

"Whether it’s fake news, foreign interference in elections or developers misusing people’s information, we didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibilities," Zuckerberg said in his opening remarks at EU headquarters. "That was a mistake, and I’m sorry for it."

But as European Parliament President Antonio Tajani and Zuckerberg attempted to wrap up, some officials interrupted saying that their questions were not answered.

"I am anxious of this brave new world that Mr. Zuckerberg has presented us, a brave new world where tens of tens of thousands of private people are scrutinizing us and are saying what is … and what is not fake news, what is … and what is not hate speech," said Guy Verhofstadt of Belgium, who chairs the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe party

Zuckerberg's appearance before the various heads of European political parties was his first in an official setting outside the U.S. since revelations about the Cambridge Analytica scandal emerged. Facebook has said it estimates 87 million Facebook users' data was possibly misused by the political ad targeting firm, including as many as 2.7 million Europeans.

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After officials asked their questions in turn, Zuckerberg spent about 30 minutes answering them.

The format allowed Zuckerberg to sidestep tough questions, some officials charged. But Tajani said the meeting had planned to be a closed one and Zuckerberg approved the livestreaming of it. Zuckerberg said he would provide answers to unanswered specific questions within a few days.

Zuckerberg's appearance was shorter than his appearances last month in Congress, but he faced more spirited and challenging questions. That could be because the European Union on Friday is set to enact the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which restricts what kind of data companies can use and store on EU citizens and what they can do with the data.

Facebook will be compliant with GDPR at the outset, Zuckerberg said.

Several officials suggested Facebook had become too powerful and represented a monopoly. Zuckerberg's response that other social media options existed is akin to a car maker having a monopoly and saying, "You can take a plane ... (or) a train. You can even take a bike," said Verhofstadt, who earlier compared Zuckerberg to the head of the "out of control" Internet company in the book The Circle.

After asking Zuckerberg whether he would open Facebook's books "to see if it is a monopoly, Verhofstadt said, "I really think we have a big problem here, and it's not solved by saying, 'We will fix it ourself.' "

Today's pre-cooked format was inappropriate & ensured #Zuckerberg could avoid our questions. I trust that written answers from Facebook will be forthcoming. If these are not accurately answered in detail, the EU competition authorities must be activated & legislation sharpened. — Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) May 22, 2018

Officials in Europe and the U.K. have sought an audience with Zuckerberg for more details on the scandal and what the company has done to improve the situation. So far, Zuckerberg has not agreed to appear before U.K. officials.

However, Zuckerberg on Wednesday is expected to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, as he joins several other tech executives including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and IBM CEO Ginny Rometty at a Tech for Good summit in Paris.

Prompting Zuckerberg's unprecedented turn at testifying were the March news reports that U.K.-based Cambridge Analytica had obtained personal data on Facebook users for political advertising efforts from a University of Cambridge researcher Aleksandr Kogan, whose personality quiz app had gleaned information on 270,000 Facebook users and tens of millions of their friends. The revelations put Facebook management on the hot seat for policies that allowed such data collection to occur and then failing to make sure the information had been deleted.

Officials questioned whether non-Facebook users could avoid collection of data on them.

About non-Facebook users' data, Syed Kamall of the U.K., and co-chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists party, asked, "What do you do with the non-Facebook users' data? Do you use it (to) commercialize it? And if you do that, is it morally acceptable, do you think in your opinion, to collect non-Facebook users' data without them knowing what you do with it?"

That question had arisen in Zuckerberg's April U.S. hearings, and the company later released more information on how it gathers data on people who aren't users, including social plug-ins like Facebook's "share" and "like" buttons.

Can you promise data kept for security is not used for other services like ads? Will you promise that there won't be exchange of data between @facebook and @WhatsApp? - good question by EP rapporteur @JanAlbrecht pic.twitter.com/XrLiIEGYeZ — EU DisinfoLab🇪🇺 (@DisinfoEU) May 22, 2018

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Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.