Feinstein: Zuckerberg will testify to Congress

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, said that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to testify before Congress in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data-privacy scandal.

“Zuckerberg has agreed,” she said in a meeting with The Chronicle’s editorial board in San Francisco on Tuesday morning. “The question is whether it will be one committee or two.” Both the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which Feinstein is the ranking Democratic member, and the Commerce Committee have extended invitations to have Zuckerberg offer testimony.

Feinstein said she had spoken with Facebook representatives earlier that day and that it was undecided whether Zuckerberg would testify on April 10, the day Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, had set in an invitation last week, or on another day.

One scenario is for a joint hearing of both committees, a possibility Feinstein raised Monday with Politico.

Feinstein told The Chronicle on Tuesday that such joint hearings were unwieldy.

Feinstein press secretary Ashley Schapitl said Tuesday afternoon that the situation was moving quickly and that an announcement of a hearing could come soon.

Taylor Foy, a spokesman for the Judiciary Committee, said that conversations are continuing, but he would not otherwise confirm Feinstein’s remarks.