The testimony included pivotal discussions, entertaining exchanges, and downright cringe-worthy moments.
Mark Zuckerberg finally finished two full days of marathon testimony before Congress on Wednesday, and as dozens of senators and representatives got the chance to ask questions about Facebook’s management of user data, the founder and CEO of Facebook found himself in hot water.
Below, we lay out the highlights that defined Zuckerberg’s testimony before the House and Senate, including the pivotal discussions, entertaining exchanges, and downright cringe-worthy moments.
During Zuckerberg’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees on Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) made quite the point about individual privacy rights.
“Mr. Zuckerberg, would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?” Durbin asked.
A confused Zuckerberg chuckled and thought for a second, leaving a moment of awkward silence, before responding that he wouldn’t share that information.
“I think that may be what this is all about,” Durbin went on after pushing the point. “Your right to privacy. The limits of your right to privacy and how much you give away in modern America in the name of, quote, connecting people around the world.”
Zuckerberg worked to salvage the situation by ensuring that all users have the ability to control who they share their information with, but Durbin’s point was made and he quickly moved on to other topics.
Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook is working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office and employees have been interviewed as part of the Russia probe pic.twitter.com/eTovzNbK7C
While answering a question from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Zuckerberg revealed that his company has met with special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Russian operatives used the social media site to spread disinformation throughout a wide base of users.
“I know we are working with them,” Zuckerberg said, but he was careful not to speak about the content of the discussions with the special counsel.
“I want to be careful here, because our work with the special counsel is confidential and I want to make sure that in an open session I’m not revealing something that is confidential,” he added.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) got blunt with Zuckerberg, grilling him on the ways Facebook manages user data and the methods the company uses to communicate its policies to customers.
“Your user agreement sucks,” Kennedy said to laughter in the room. “The purpose of that user agreement is to cover Facebook’s rear end, not to inform your users about their rights. You know that, and I know that.”
After an amusing exchange between the two about the details of the social media site’s policies, Kennedy concluded with a blistering series of questions that Zuckerberg stumbled over in his answer.
After forcing Zuckerberg to admit that Facebook has the ability to gather data on any individual and share it with others without permission, Kennedy simply concluded in agreement with the Facebook founder and CEO that “it would be a breach” before handing it off to the next interlocutor.
Queue mic drop.
During Zuckerberg’s second day of testimony, he appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where Rep. David McKinley (R-W. Va.) asked about measures taken by Facebook to curb the illegal sale of opioids on the site.
. @RepMcKinley rips into Zuckerberg for Facebook’s role in the opioid epidemic.
“With all due respect… you are hurting people.” pic.twitter.com/axW8tLBFk9
— IJR (@TheIJR) April 11,2018
“Your platform is still being used to circumvent the law,” McKinley said.
“With all due respect, Facebook actually enabling and an illegal activity and in so doing, you are hurting people,” he added.
Zuckerberg responded by explaining the system in place for flagging illegal content, but McKinley’s statements still made for a dramatic moment during the testimony.
Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) ripped Zuckerberg on his lack of knowledge about lawsuits and emphasized that victims of privacy breaches are rarely compensated by Facebook.
When Zuckerberg said he wasn’t aware of the lawsuits she brought up, DeGette wasn’t happy.
„You’re the CEO of the company, you entered into a consent decree, and you don’t remember if you had a financial penalty,” she said, baffled by the social media mogul’s ignorance about the details of an FTC case.
All in all, Zuckerberg’s testimony made for a grueling session for members of Congress to voice their grievances against Facebook for a variety of different issues. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t have its fun moments.
Aaron Credeur is a News Fellow at IJR. He has written on a variety of national topics, including the 2016 presidential election, the state of liberal… more
