![\"Facebook\"](\"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Facebook-1.jpg\")
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apologised for the data debacle that has upended the social media giant and said he was ready to testify before Congress, a media report said.\n\u201cThe short answer is I\u2019m happy to if it\u2019s the right thing to do,\u201d Zuckerberg said in a CNN interview on Wednesday night.
\n\u201cWhat we try to do is send the person at Facebook who will have the most knowledge.
\n\u201cIf that\u2019s me, then I am happy to go,\u201d he added.
\nAlthough Facebook employs a small army of lawyers and lobbyists in Washington, Zuckerberg himself has never testified before a congressional committee.
\nPoliticians have called for Zuckerberg to testify before their legislative bodies in the five days since the Cambridge Analytica scandal erupted.
\nThe data firm, which has ties to President Donald Trump\u2019s campaign, reportedly accessed information from about 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge, CNN reported.
\nFacebook has said that the data was initially collected by a professor for academic purposes in line with its rules. The information was later transferred to third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, in violation of Facebook\u2019s policies.
\nZuckerberg broke his silence on the issue earlier on Wednesday with a post on his personal Facebook page laying out a series of steps the company would take to better protect user data.
\n\u201cI want to share an update on the Cambridge Analytica situation-including the steps we have already taken and our next steps to address this important issue. I\u2019ve been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn\u2019t happen again,\u201d the CEO wrote.
\n\u201cThe good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there\u2019s more to do, and we need to step up and do it,\u201d he added.
\nIn the CNN interview, Zuckerberg suggested that the question was not whether Facebook should be regulated so much as how best to do it.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not sure we shouldn\u2019t be regulated,\u201d Zuckerberg said. \u201cThere are things like ad transparency regulation that I would love to see.\u201d
\nZuckerberg was criticised by some on social media for his post for stopping short of an outright apology. He rectified that in the CNN interview.
\n\u201cThis was a major breach of trust, and I\u2019m really sorry that this happened… We have a basic responsibility to protect peoples\u2019 data.\u201d
\nThe CEO was now pledging to further restrict developers\u2019 access to user data. Facebook will also investigate all apps with access to large amounts of user data.
\nZuckerberg also expressed regret for not doing more to take action against Cambridge Analytica when the issue came to the company\u2019s attention in 2015.
\n\u201cWe need to make sure we don\u2019t make that mistake ever again,\u201d he told CNN.<\/p>\n