IT’S TIME TO ACT

Congressional lawmakers tried to put on a good show while grilling Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the misappropriation of detailed personal data from as many as 87 million users by Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting irm linked to the Trump campaign. But after 10 hours of testimony by Zuckerberg spread over two days last week, it seemed clear that many graying members of Congress are unprepared to regulate Facebook — or any other social-media or data-driven companies — even if they wanted to. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is 62, asked Zuckerberg if Twitter was “the same as what you do,” while Sen. Orrin Hatch, who is 84, asked how Facebook made money. Zuckerberg, 33, said, “Senator, we run ads.” As lawmakers struggled to understand how Facebook works, the social-media giant’s share price increased, as investors quickly understood the hearings were likely to result in what Shakespeare described as “sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Zuckerberg apologised for the data breach, just as he has done repeatedly over the years for previous screw-ups. He also dodged lawmakers’ questions nearly two dozen times. Meanwhile, the senators were roasted on Twitter. But allowing Facebook to resume business as usual is not an option. With more than two billion users around the world, Facebook wields enormous power through the vast amount of private data it collects.

The Philadelphia Inquirer