Facebook CEO keeps his cool under grilling
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg fielded 10 hours of questions over two days from nearly 100 US lawmakers and emerged largely unscathed and considerably richer.
He parried questions of how much control people have over their data on the world’s largest social media network without a major gaffe, while avoiding being cornered into supporting new government regulation.
The hearings that ended yesterday revealed no consensus among US lawmakers about what kind of privacy legislation they might want to pursue, if any, and no timeline for action.
As he did before a Senate hearing the day before, Zuckerberg refused during a House of Representatives committee hearing to make any promises to support new legislation or change how the social network does business.
‘‘It is inevitable that there will need to be some regulation’’ of internet firms, Zuckerberg said, but avoided specifics.
Although Zuckerberg (33) had never testified at a congressional hearing before, he succeeded in deflecting questions like a Washington veteran. Forty times he said he had no answers at hand and would get back to them.
On one point, Zuckerberg undercut his message Facebook users have control of their data. He said he was among the nearly 87 million people whose personal information was improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook shares closed up both yesterday and Wednesday, raising the value of Zuckerberg’s stake about $US3 billion ($NZ4 billion). — Reuters