At a hearing on Libra, Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by House lawmakers from both parties on the proposed cryptocurrency, privacy, diversity, and misinformation

The social media giant's chief executive took an early lashing Wednesday over the company's policies to spot and prevent the spread disinformation.

Washington Post 2019-10-24 Tony Romm

Context & Ripple Effects

This is Zuckerberg's second solo appearance before Congress, returning to the same committee setup as his first day of congressional hearings in 2018 — but this time with a concrete product, Libra, on the table rather than a scandal to explain. The House Financial Services Committee scheduled the appearance two weeks out when it announced Zuckerberg would testify, making him answer personally where in July the company had sent Calibra head David Marcus to the Senate to defend the cryptocurrency instead.

The July hearings set the framing lawmakers pressed today: the Senate session centered on mistrust of Facebook itself, while the House session zeroed in on the regulatory hurdles Libra faces before a planned release. By escalating from lieutenant to CEO, Facebook signaled Libra is important enough to stake its founder's credibility on — and both parties used the slot to widen the agenda to privacy, diversity, and disinformation.

First-order effects

Zuckerberg now personally carries the burden of defending Libra that Marcus bore in July, facing bipartisan questioning that ties the currency's fate to Facebook's track record on privacy and misinformation rather than to the coin's design.

Second-order effects

Libra's prospective launch path runs through the very regulators represented at this hearing, so every unresolved distrust question raised here raises the bar for partners and financial institutions weighing involvement in the project.

Third-order effects

The hearing extends the pattern of Congress treating a platform company's new product categories — payments included — as inseparable from its content-moderation record, meaning future tech entrants into financial infrastructure inherit the founder's trust deficit as a regulatory hurdle.

The trend: Regulators are folding Big Tech's expansion into financial services into the broader platform-accountability fight, with founders increasingly summoned to answer for the whole company, not just the product at hand.

Discussion

Vox Emily Stewart on x
Watch AOC ask Mark Zuckerberg if she can run fake Facebook ads, too
@bubbaprog Timothy Burke on x
completely befuddled. pic.twitter.com/n0RjyZZvQ1
@kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x
Good question: Rep. Porter just asked Zuckerberg to commit to spending one hour per day for the next year watching the same content that Facebook's content moderators do. “I'm not sure it would best serve our community...” he started to say before she cut him off.
@tonyromm Tony Romm on x
Wow. Rep. Porter cites the rough conditions content moderators must work under. She asks if Zuck would spend “1 hr a day over the next year watching these videos... and only accessing the same benefits available to your workers” Zuck didn't say anything
@andrewkimmel Andrew Kimmel on x
Mark Zuckerberg admits to @RepMaxineWaters that Facebook does fact check ads, but will not fact check political ads because he thinks it's important for candidates to “inject their message into the political debate.” pic.twitter.com/uLG0MWnq0j
@juddlegum Judd Legum on x
Remarkable. Zuckerberg tells @AOC that he DOES NOT KNOW if she could run ads in a GOP primary saying one of the candidates supports the Green New Deal What @AOC is doing is breaking down the distinction Facebook is trying to make between “fact checking” and “voter suppression” ht…
@benthompson Ben Thompson on x
It remains very problematic that companies that work harder to root out awful content online (and thus have higher reported numbers) are villified as “not doing enough” when their competitors by definition are doing far less. Huge incentive problem.
@tomselliott Tom Elliott on x
.@RepAlGreen is incredulous Mark Zuckerberg doesn't know how many staffers working on Libra are LGBT pic.twitter.com/K6AJXFIZlp
@tonyromm Tony Romm on x
Water: “Facebook's plans to create a digital currency, Libra, and a digital wallet, Calibra, raise many concerns related to privacy, trading risk, discrimination ... national security, monetary policy and the security of the global financial system” nbd there
@aprilaser April Glaser on x
In one week, Mark Zuckerberg has twice now evoked a terribly misleading and false choice: Lawmakers must either stop threatening to regulate Facebook or else China will “win.” I wrote about what he's really saying here https://slate.com/...
@vladzamfir Vlad Zamfir on x
US-based blockchain projects existed before Zuckerberg decided that he wants to dominate the space https://twitter.com/...
@balajis Balaji S. Srinivasan on x
Here's the full transcript of the six hour #Zuckerberg hearing on Libra. https://www.c-span.org/...
@vanitaguptacr Vanita Gupta on x
⁦@RepMaxineWaters⁩ grilled Zuckerberg on the company's political ads policy, FB's willingness to allow virtually unfettered speech: “The impact...will be a massive voter suppression effort. Your claim to promote freedom of speech does not ring true.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@hshaban Hamza Shaban on x
“Facebook claims it prohibits speech that leads to voter suppression. But by allowing misinformation that portrays candidates saying things they haven't, it may suppress the vote anyway” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
@marawilson @marawilson on x
This is important. Content moderators are continuously exposed to all kinds of disturbing content, often for little pay, with no support and NO BENEFITS. Many turn to drugs and risky sexual behaviors just to get their minds off things, and some get radicalized themselves. https:/…
@ceciliakang Cecilia Kang on x
We said Zuckerberg would be on the defensive and admit that Facebook has a trust issue. That have been an understatement. This is a very tough grilling so far: https://nytimes.com/...
@jbouie B-Boy Bouiebaisse on x
i feel like it is genuinely underrated how effective a questioner Ocasio-Cortez is https://twitter.com/...
@joshconstine Josh Constine on x
The final surprise from Zuckerberg's testimony? He's enthusiastic about trying to verify more & more users via gov ID https://twitter.com/...
@tonyromm Tony Romm on x
FINAL UPDATE: Zuck took a bit of a beating in Congress today, particularly from Dems. A hearing on Libra quickly expanded to focus on political ads and disinformation, but some of the most important moments touched on civil rights. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@owillis Oliver Willis on x
.@AOC asks Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg about the company's use of the Daily Caller as a fact checker, despite repeated, documented instances of the Daily Caller publishing the work of white nationalists. pic.twitter.com/3tjeRSf72n
@sheeraf She-Ra Frenkel on x
Interesting how many congressmen have asked Zuckerberg about when he told his board about X or Y. Basic lack of understanding here about how FB works. Zuckerberg can do whatever he wants. He controls a majority of the voting shares and his board is just for advice.
@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
“When did you first discuss [Cambridge Analytica] with board member Peter Thiel?” Zuckerberg doesn't have a straight answer.
@thekenyeung Ken Yeung on x
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez wants to push Zuckerberg, asks if she could create an ad targeted to black communities promoting the wrong election date. Zuckerberg says that there is some fact-checking that goes on but not political ads.
@lopezlinette Linette Lopez on x
Katie Porter's super power is that she knows what companies are arguing in court, and when she tells CEOs they have to act baffled when it the opposite of what they're saying in their BS, lawyer-combed, PR prepped testimony. https://twitter.com/...
@sarahfrier Sarah Frier on x
Rep Pressley pushes Zuckerberg on saying he has a product solution for the under-banked. The problem isn't transaction cost or identity. “You understand the power but I don't think you understand the pain. There's underbanking because people are broke.”
@kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x
Rep. Pressley just asked: “Would you leave behind your children's inheritance in Libra?” Zuckerberg says that “I would,” claiming the fact that it's backed one-to-one with real currencies will mean it's legitimate.
@b_fung Brian Fung on x
Zuckerberg also says they did not discuss Facebook's policies on fact-checking politicians. Zuck is clearly uncomfortable revealing this information and tries to protest repeatedly.
@b_fung Brian Fung on x
Finally, somebody asks what went on in the Zuckerberg meeting with President Trump. Zuckerberg says he doesn't think they talked about antitrust investigations, then confirms “those subjects didn't come up” with Trump.
@thekenyeung Ken Yeung on x
Congressman Riggleman asked Zuck how realistic was the portrayal of “The Social Network”. <snickers> Riggleman says we're about to see “The Social Network 2” and wanted to make sure he's in control of his casting.
@cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x
every lawmaker should be this forceful at coaxing a material answer to the specific question they are asking. https://twitter.com/...
@cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x
the congressional commission to find innovative ways to ruin mark zuckerberg's day https://twitter.com/...
@tonyromm Tony Romm on x
THE LATEST from the FB/Zuck hearing: A lot more criticism from Dems on diversity and civil rights, including from Rep. Tlaib, who showed a photo of a person with a rifle outside a mosque that FB appeared to allow on an event listing https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@joshconstine Josh Constine on x
Today's testimony begs the question, if Zuckerberg insists he doesn't control Libra, what combo of Fb & Libra execs would Congress need to testify together to get real answers?
@thekenyeung Ken Yeung on x
🔥 take Takeaways from Zuckerberg's Congressional testimony thus far: - Nothing new said by Zuck - Republicans think Zuck's like Trump and swoon over him - Dems think he's not caring enough about civil rights and he's evil - Why is Libra based in Switzerland? - Around we go...
@kellymakena Makena Kelly on x
Rep. Beatty is really making Zuck sweat over civil rights and housing ads at Facebook. Wow.
@teddyschleifer Teddy Schleifer on x
Congress is asking good questions of Mark Zuckerberg. Every members has their own priorities, of course. Which gives this hearing on the whole a scattershot feel. But 90% of the Representatives are probing a powerful person in a thoughtful, firm and analytical way.
@ddayen David Dayen on x
That was my favorite moment of the Zuck hearing. Ed Perlmutter asks if the digital wallet is like a bank. You could say that, Zuck replies, but we're not asking for a banking license. “That's the problem!” Perlmutter says.
@b_fung Brian Fung on x
Quite possibly the most meaningless question of the day so far: Rep. Roger Williams asks Zuckerberg: “Mr Zuckerberg, are you a capitalist or a socialist?” Zuckerberg, suppressing a laugh: “Congressman, I would definitely consider myself a capitalist.”
@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
To not foresee that launching a currency would lead to this type of scrutiny — or to foresee that scrutiny and still think the company can pull it off — is just bad leadership. Like launching a space shuttle in a hurricane.
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
“Thank you Mr. Zuckerberg. Your biography is a textbook example of the power of capitalism.” — Rep. Williams, with the understatement of the year
@ashleyfeinberg Ashley Feinberg on x
lol mark zuckerberg thinks it shouldn't rest on one company's shoulders to make decisions about speech which.... is correct! he's so close!
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
This is true. Congress is getting better at questioning Facebook faster than Facebook is getting better at lobbying Congress. https://twitter.com/...
@joshconstine Josh Constine on x
Zuckerberg says it would be reasonable for regulators to mandate that Libra be majority-backed by US dollars, not foreign currencies https://twitter.com/...
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
also noteworthy that the lines of questioning are far more sophisticated than they were a year ago during senate testimony i would assume after being pilloried after “senator, we run ads,” congress wanted to be much more prepared this go-round
@kevinroose Kevin Roose on x
Things I have learned from Congress today: — Facebook is a multi-trillion-dollar company — Mark Zookerman is the CEO of Facebook — Libra's real name is the “Zuck Buck”
@ceciliakang Cecilia Kang on x
These are very tough/good Qs: Rep. Green: of 21 members of Libra Association, how many headed by women, minorities, LGBTQ. Zuckerberg cannot answer
@can @can on x
I was surprised Zuckerberg, who by most accounts is a smart person, not just got fooled into believing cryptocurrencies are a thing, but also went to double down on Libra. https://twitter.com/...
@rowlsmanthorpe Rowland Manthorpe on x
How to use five minutes with Mark Zuckerberg, the Congress playbook: 1. Waste two minutes recapping what's just happened 2. Ask a question you could easily Google 3. Interrupt - so tough! 4. Rush him to finish as you're running out of time 5. “Thank you Mr Zuckerman”
@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
We just got our first “Mr. Zuckerman” of the hearing
@kellymakena Makena Kelly on x
BIG! Rep. Bill Huizenga asks what Facebook would do if the Libra Association decided to launch its cryptocurrency project without US regulator approval. Zuckerberg: “Then I believe [Facebook] would be forced to leave the Association.”
@b_fung Brian Fung on x
We're on to housing discrimination issues. Rep. Lacy Clay asks if Facebook would comply with any future subpoenas or document requests that could shed light on housing advertisers' behavior. Zuckerberg assents, after a brief pause.
@matthewstoller Matt Stoller on x
This hearing is so annoying. It's basically: Q: You helped do a genocide. What the fuck. A: We've learned a lot over the past few years and we've put new systems in place.
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
Congress does memes pic.twitter.com/CRajtxT1DA
@markscott82 Mark Scott on x
Should add: whatever US lawmakers say today, regulators — in US and elsewhere — have already acted. Central bankers, competition authorities & privacy regulators all have said Libra won't go ahead without major changes. In short, today is pure political theater.
@willoremus Will Oremus on x
Oh good, a question about Facebook censoring conservatives and antivaxxers! I was afraid we might get through an hour of hearing about a *cryptocurrency product* without Congress advancing any antivaxx conspiracies.
@juliacarriew Julia Carrie Wong on x
This interaction with @RepGregoryMeeks is another example of how Zuckerberg's attempts to cloak his company in progressive social values (the civil rights movement, serving the unbanked) falls apart at the slightest scrutiny.
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
Congresswoman Velazquez brings up precedent regarding Facebook's promise to keep Libra data separate from the rest of the company: FB told the EU it wouldn't link data with WhatsApp post acquisition, but did anyway and was fined. She asks if FB has learned to not lie this time.
@stevekopack Steve Kopack on x
Zuckerberg essentially just announced that Facebook will be launching its news tab later this week. He says he hopes it will support and “fund” “high quality journalism”

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