Zuckerberg Faces Second Day of Intense Congressional Grilling Over Privacy
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee for five hours as lawmakers press him on privacy, diversity, and illegal drug sales. The hearing follows the Cambridge Analytica data scandal that exposed millions of users' personal information.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces a second consecutive day of intense questioning on Capitol Hill, this time appearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. After five hours of testimony before Senate committees on Tuesday, the 33-year-old executive endures another five-hour grilling from House representatives who demand simple "yes or no" answers. The lawmakers maintain a sharply critical tone throughout the proceedings as they address the massive social media platform's handling of user information.
The congressional hearings stem directly from the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, where a third-party group improperly obtained and sold Facebook user data to assist political campaigns. Zuckerberg repeatedly apologizes for the privacy breach, blaming a rogue researcher who violated the platform's terms of service, and admits that his own personal data is caught up in the leak. He also acknowledges to Rep. Mike Doyle that Facebook sometimes learns about major privacy violations through press reports rather than internal monitoring.
Representatives expand their focus well beyond data security and privacy issues to grill Zuckerberg on a variety of controversial platform practices. Lawmakers question the tech executive about a lack of diversity within Facebook's headquarters and press him on whether the company tacitly allows illegal drug sales to occur on its network. This historic testimony marks the first time Zuckerberg personally appears before Congress to answer for his company's widespread impact on society and democratic institutions.