Most Facebook users hit by Cambridge Analytica scandal are Californians – CNET
Most Facebook users hit by Cambridge Analytica scandal are Californians
But Washington, DC, tops the list when you break down the US states affected by percentage of the population.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said more than 87 million people were affected by data misuse in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
James Martin/CNETFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that up to 87 million people had their data improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, a digital consultancy with ties to the Trump campaign.
Now, we know where most people were affected. Facebook last month quietly released a state-by-state breakdown of those caught up in the scandal.
Topping the list are California, with 6.7 million impacted users; Texas, with 5.6 million; and Florida, with 4.3 million. In total, Facebook said more than 70 million people in the US were affected.
Business Insider, which earlier Wednesday reported news of the breakdown, also notes how different the map looks when it comes to states affected by percentage of population. In those terms, Washington, DC, tops the list, with almost half of its population affected. After that comes West Virginia, Mississippi and Kentucky — all states that voted for Trump in 2016.
Facebook mentioned the state-by-state breakdown in a 500 page follow-up response to questions from the US Senate after Zuckerberg’s testimonies before Congress in April. Last month, the social network quietly updated a blog post from April with the new information.
The company is still reeling from the Cambridge Analytica ordeal, Facebook’s biggest crisis in its 14-year existence. The backlash has raised questions about whether Facebook could be trusted to protect the precious personal data of its more than 2 billion users.
Meanwhile, Facebook is still in the hot seat with lawmakers over the company’s role in the 2016 US presidential election. Russian trolls abused the platform — as well as Twitter and Google — by spreading misinformation and divisive content meant meddle in the election and sow discord among voters.
In the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook notified users who were affected by the data misuse with alerts at the tops of their news feeds.
Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for additional comment about the state-by-state breakdown.
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