Facebook said on Wednesday the personal data of up to 87 million users was improperly shared with British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, Reuters reported.
The numbers are up from the previously reported 50 million user data
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a conference call with reporters that Facebook had not seen “any meaningful impact” on usage or ad sales since the scandal, although he added, “it’s not good” if people are unhappy with the company.
Zuckerberg told reporters that he accepted blame for the data leak, which has angered users, advertisers and lawmakers, while defending his leadership at the world’s largest social network.
“When you’re building something like Facebook that is unprecedented in the world, there are going to be things that you mess up,” Zuckerberg said, adding that the important thing was to learn from mistakes.
He said he was not aware of any discussions on the Facebook board about him stepping down, although directors would face a challenge if they wanted to oust him because Zuckerberg is the controlling shareholder.
He said he had not fired anyone over the scandal and did not plan to. “I’m not looking to throw anyone else under the bus for mistakes that we made here,” he said.
Facebook first acknowledged last month that personal information about millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of Cambridge Analytica.
Zuckerberg will appear before a joint hearing of the US Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on April 10 and the US House Energy and Commerce Committee on April 11.
The social networking firm has come under fire in recent weeks after it was disclosed that political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, gained access to the personal data of 50 million Facebook users.
