INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
congressional hearing, as lawmakers unleashed a litany of complaints about the company's privacy practices, its failure to fight the opioid
crisis and the lack of diversity within its executive ranks.For five hours, Democrats and Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce
Committee took turns swiping at Zuckerberg, holding him to "yes" and "no" questions and frequently cutting him off -- a tactic that at times
mistake and I'm sorry" (AFP)Facebook's data practices were the official topic of the hearing, prompted by its entanglement with with
Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that improperly accessed 87 million Facebook users' names, "likes" and other personal
At one point in the hearing, Zuckerberg acknowledged that his own data had been accessed by Cambridge Analytica.Even as he apologized for
on its own - and threatened to regulate the company and its tech industry peers.Opening the session, the House panel's leader, Republican
Greg Walden (Ore.), called Facebook an "American success story." But he added: "While Facebook has certainly grown, I worry it has not
between calm and frustrated as lawmakers challenged him (AFP)For Facebook, the Cambridge Analytica crisis has triggered unprecedented
political scrutiny, prompting Zuckerberg to testify at two hearings in two days, spanning 10 hours of questioning from 91 lawmakers
Meanwhile, the company could soon face major fines from the Federal Trade Commission, which has opened an investigation.But Facebook's
political and legal challenges span more than Cambridge Analytica
In the wake of its review of the firm's activities, Facebook also has acknowledged that malicious actors scraped information from the public
profiles of practically its entire base, more than 2 billion users.For weeks, the revelations have wreaked havoc on Facebook's stock, wiping
out billions of dollars in value
On Wednesday, though, it closed up 0.8 percent, continuing its rebound this week.Zuckerberg started the House hearing by repeating the same
apology he gave to the Senate a day earlier
"It was my mistake, and I'm sorry
I started Facebook, I run it, and I'm responsible for what happens here," he told House lawmakers.But Zuckerberg's demeanor vacillated
between calm and frustrated as lawmakers challenged the 33-year-old billionaire on a host of issues beyond consumer privacy
He sipped from a cup frequently as lawmakers hammered him with grievances.Democratic Rep
Butterfield, N.C., demanded that Zuckerberg improve the company's hiring practices, pointing out that Facebook had no people of color in its
Joe Barton, Texas, pressed Zuckerberg to address conservatives' fears that the site censors their content, news and views
David McKinley, W.Va., accused Zuckerberg and Facebook of "hurting people" by failing to thwart those who try to sell opioids on the site."I
think there are a number of areas of content we need to do a better job of policing on our service," Zuckerberg replied.Her Democratic
colleague, New Mexico Rep
Ben Lujan, raised reports that Facebook collects data on those who aren't even users -- called "shadow profiles" by some
Zuckerberg, however, said he was "not specifically familiar with that."And Lujan pointed to researchers who had publicly expressed fears
that Facebook data could be scraped by malicious actors, emphasizing that the tech giant should have terminated its phone and email lookup
feature sooner than it did."Facebook knew about this in 2013 and 2015, but you didn't turn the feature off until Wednesday of last week," he
"This is essentially a tool for these malicious actors to steal a person's identity and put the finishing touches on it."Republican Rep
Marsha Blackburn, Tenn., meanwhile, remarked that Facebook looks "a whole lot like the Truman Show," where users' information is "made
available to people they don't know, and then that data is crunched and used and they are fully unaware of this."The Tennessee lawmaker
cited rules that govern health data, financial transactions and other industries, before touting her bill that would require tech companies
to obtain user permission before they can collect and sell user data
Facebook has long lobbied against the so-called Browser Act.Once the hearing concluded, lawmakers like Walden said they hoped to invite
other tech executives to testify - a sign that scrutiny could intensify and widen to cover companies like Google and Twitter."If all we do
is have a hearing and nothing happens, then that's not accomplishing anything," said New Jersey Rep
Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.Some lawmakers read letters from their constituents, detailing
common complaints about the service that more than 200 million Americans use
In one of the toughest exchanges on Wednesday, Democratic Rep
Anna Eshoo -- a lawmaker who represents a slice of Silicon Valley -- needled Zuckerberg for failing to explain its data-collection practices
to users in "clear and pedestrian language.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by staff and is published from a
