Zuckerberg meets Trump With FB on defensive
WASHINGTON/ARLINGTON: Facebook Inc. chief executive Mark Zuckerberg met with US President Donald Trump on Thursday as he tried to sway Congress and policy makers who have been critical of the practices of the social media firm.
Zuckerberg had a constructive meeting with the president at the White House, according to a Facebook spokesman. Trump’s son-inlaw and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, attended the meeting, along with Dan Scavino, the president’s social media director, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Trump later tweeted that it was a “nice meeting”.
Zuckerberg’s meetings on Capitol Hill, however, grew testy as he clashed with Republican Senator Josh Hawley over his company’s record on privacy and safeguarding user data.
“I said to him, ‘prove that you are serious about data, sell Whatsapp, and sell Instagram.’ That’s what they should do,” Hawley said to reporters after meeting with Zuckerberg in Washington on Thursday. “I think it’s safe to say he was not receptive to those suggestions.”
Zuckerberg is defending his firm’s practices to some of his harshest critics.
Hawley said he had a “very frank discussion” with Zuckerberg on the company’s record on privacy and political bias and said he thinks Facebook should be subject to independent audits of its content reviews. Hawley said he also pressed Zuckerberg for “a wall” between Facebook and its other platforms and Zuckerberg said no.