Mark Zuckerberg Gets Grilled in Congressional Hearing Round 2

Members of Congress seemed better prepared on Wednesday
By Josh Gardner,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 11, 2018 5:51 PM CDT
Zuckerberg Faces Tougher Questioning on Day 2
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg listens to a question as he testifies before a House Energy and Commerce hearing   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Mark Zuckerberg appeared to endure a tougher round of questioning in the House of Representatives on Wednesday than he did Tuesday in the Senate. While CNN called Tuesday's Senate hearing on the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal "softball," the Facebook CEO received a more intense grilling in the House about the specifics of how personal data is used by the social media giant. Per the New York Times, members of Congress also demanded from Zuckerberg his beliefs about the potential regulation of Facebook, about whether Russians used the platform to affect the 2016 election, and if Facebook has a liberal bias, among other pointed questions. One such question came from Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, who wanted a yes or no from Zuckerberg about whether he'd agree to pare down data collection to a bare minimum.

Zuckerberg declined to answer definitively and managed, mostly, to stick to the same script he used in the Senate on Tuesday. He did, however, reveal at least one new bit of information: he claims to be among the 87 million users whose data was compromised. Throughout the testimony, Zuckerberg stood firm on the Facebook stance that users control their own data. "Every time that someone chooses to share something on Facebook … there is a control," he said. Also, in what could be a revelation to some, Zuckerberg said Facebook collects data from some people who do not have accounts, as well as some who've deleted theirs, "for security purposes." (More Facebook stories.)

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