Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg held a call with reporters today to answer questions about the sweeping changes the company made to its third-party app developer platform, as well as the revelation that as many as 87 million users — not 50 million as previously thought — may have had their personal data misused by Cambridge Analytica.
Slate’s Will Oremus asked whether the chief executive himself would have used apps like the one designed by Cambridge psychology professor Aleksandr Kogan, called “thisisyourdigitallife,” that siphoned the data of around 270,000 users and all of their friends, which Kogan then packaged and sold.
The CEO’s answer was candid and will likely enter the pantheon of iconic Zuck quotes, which also includes his original business card slogan (“I’m CEO, bitch”) and “move fast and break things.” “I certainly use a lot of apps; I’m a power user of the internet,” Zuckerberg responded. Like an increasing number of people, Zuck is extremely online — with precautions. Here is Zuckerberg taping up his webcam.
A power use of the internet, indeed. Journalists on the call pounced on a welcome moment of brevity in an otherwise serious discussion about election integrity, hate speech, and data privacy.
