Joe Kennedy: ‘Public has right to answers’ in data scandal
U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III said Facebook’s privacy crisis “opens the door” to government regulation of the internet behemoth.
“When you see lapses like that, it opens the door for Congress to get involved,” Kennedy told the Herald about news that “malicious actors” mined data from most of Facebook’s 2 billion users.
“People who carry a smartphone often don’t have any idea about the use of the information constantly being gathered and commoditized,” Kennedy said. “The door is definitely open for us to step in and make sure people’s information is safeguarded.”
Kennedy will take a key role in grilling Zuckerberg during the web wunderkind’s congressional apology tour next week, thrusting the Camelot heir again into the national spotlight amid a “deeply concerning” social media privacy crisis.
“We need to hear answers from Facebook about what happened, how it happened and what measures they will take to make sure it never happens again,” Kennedy said. “It’s deeply concerning.”
The hotly anticipated congressional hearing follows Kennedy’s national rebuttal to President Trump’s State of the Union in January and would boost his emergence as a rising Democratic star.
“The public has a right to answers,” Kennedy said. “Mr. Zuckerberg is the public face of the company and people have legitimate concerns about the use of their information.”
Zuckerberg has acknowledged that political consultancy Cambridge Analytica improperly mined up to 87 million Facebook user profiles, while other third parties scraped user information.
Zuckerberg, who had so far avoided the bad publicity of testifying before Congress, will go before two Congressional committees next week in what are expected to be grueling, intensely watched hearings. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, where Kennedy sits, will question the Facebook chief April 11.
“I think he should come here. This is a hard issue, one that’s evolving with the pace of technology. People need to understand what type of information they are generating, how it’s being safeguarded and how it’s being used,” said the Brighton Democrat.
Kennedy, who before this year had maintained a low-profile role on Capitol Hill, got much of his early recognition thanks to viral videos of his impassioned speeches on Facebook.
“We all generate a massive amount of information on social media, and it can be used to influence people,” he said. “That prompts questions about how we protect that information, how it is stored and what safeguards do we have to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future.”