San Francisco: 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.

"The short answer is I'm happy to if it's the right thing to do," Zuckerberg said in a CNN interview on Wednesday night.

"What we try to do is send the person at Facebook who will have the most knowledge. If that's me, then I am happy to go," he added.

Although Facebook employs a small army of lawyers and lobbyists in Washington, Zuckerberg himself has never testified before a congressional committee.

Politicians have called for Zuckerberg to testify before their legislative bodies in the five days since the Cambridge Analytica scandal erupted.

The data firm, which has ties to President Donald Trump's campaign, reportedly accessed information from about 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge, CNN reported.

Facebook 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's policies.

Zuckerberg also expressed regret for not doing more to take action against Cambridge Analytica when the issue came to the company's attention in 2015.

"We need to make sure we don't make that mistake ever again," he told CNN.

 

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Sakti (Chhattisgarh), Apr 14 (PTI): Four workers were killed and 15 others injured in an explosion at a power plant in Chhattisgarh's Sakti district on Tuesday, police said, adding that some workers are feared trapped at the site.

According to preliminary information, the blast occurred in a boiler tube at the Vedanta Limited power plant in Singhitarai village in the afternoon, a senior police officer said.

"Four workers have died, and 15 others sustained injuries," said Prafull Thakur, Superintendent of Police, Sakti district.

Soon after receiving information, local administration and police teams rushed to the spot and launched rescue operations.

The injured have been shifted to nearby hospitals for treatment, while rescue efforts are underway amid fears that some workers may still be trapped at the site, the officer added.