On October 23, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the House Financial Services Committee of the US for a hearing on Libra, a cryptocurrency proposed by his company Facebook. A very interesting part of the discussion between Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zuckerberg, however, turned out to be not specifically about Libra but Facebook’s track record in general.
“In order for us to make decisions about Libra, I think we need to dig into your past behaviour and Facebook’s past behaviour with respect to our democracy,” Ocasio-Cortez said, questioning Zuckerberg about the time when his company’s top leadership became aware of the data leak scandal that involved Cambridge Analytica.
Zuckerberg was also grilled about fact-checking political advertising on Facebook. “You won’t take down lies or you will take down lies? That’s a pretty simple yes or no,” Ocasio-Cortez asked the Facebook CEO, to which his reply was that in a democracy, people should see things for themselves and decide.
Watch Zuckerberg’s full testimony.
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