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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/live/2018/apr/10/mark-zuckerberg-testimony-live-congress-facebook-cambridge-analytica
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| Zuckerberg testimony: Facebook CEO says protecting 2018 elections is top priority – live | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Senator Dean Heller: Have you ever drawn the line on what kind of data you will sell to advertisers? | |
| Zuckerberg jumps on Heller’s misstatement – that Facebook doesn’t “sell” data – and dodges the question of whether Facebook would ever draw a line on what kind of data it collects or uses to target advertisers. | |
| Heller: Do you record the contents of our calls? | |
| Zuck: I don’t believe we’ve ever collected the content of phone calls. | |
| Heller: Do you believe you’re more responsible with our data than the US government? | |
| Zuck: Yes. | |
| Heller: Do you think you’re a victim? Do you think you’re company is a victim. | |
| Zuck: No. We have a responsibility to protect anyone in our community. | |
| Heller: Do you consider the 87m to be victims? | |
| Zuck: Yes... That happened and it happened on our watch. | |
| Booker: “You are an industry that lacks diversity.” Asks whether Facebook would open its platform to civil rights organizations to audit what’s happening with discrimination. | |
| Zuck: That’s a good idea. Let’s follow up. | |
| Booker: Raises concern about use of Facebook by law enforcement to surveil groups like Black Lives Matter. Will you ensure that your platform isn’t used to surveil and undermind the work of civil rights activist? | |
| Zuck: Yes. Notes that Facebook only supplies information to law enforcement with a subpoena or warrant. | |
| Yesterday, CNN reported that one of the largest “Black Lives Matter” pages on Facebook was actually being run by a white Australian man. | |
| Senator Cory Booker: “We’ve seen how technology platforms can be used to double down on discrimination.” | |
| Booker is talking about all the ways that Facebook’s ad targeting tools can and have been used to publish discriminatory advertisements in violation of civil rights legislation, despite Facebook’s promise to reform. | |
| Booker mentions that Facebook’s reforms have included requiring self-certification by advertisers that they aren’t being discriminatory, but notes that self-certification didn’t work with Cambridge Analytica. | |
| Zuckerberg again brings up artificial intelligence tools and a desire to become more “proactive,” but adds: “I’m not happy with where we are.” | |
| Senator Jerry Moran: How does 87m Facebook friends having their data shared when only 300,000 consented not violate the consent decree? | |
| Zuck: Our view is that we didn’t violate the consent order. The way that the app worked is how we explained that it worked. The system worked as it was designed, the issue is that we designed the system in a way that wasn’t good. | |
| Moran: You’re not suggesting that the friends consented? | |
| Zuck says that it was clear how the system worked, so therefore consent was given. About 86.7m people would probably disagree. | |
| This is very tricky territory for Zuck, and he’s falling back onto talking points about the value Facebook saw in having such an open API. | |
| This is a weird line of questioning. People rightly lay a lot of responsibilities at Zuckerberg’s door, but passing legislation is actually Congress’s job. | |
| Senator Tom Udall asks if Zuckerberg is going to be an advocate for the Honest Ads Act. | |
| Zuckerberg: Our team is certainly going to work on this. | |
| Udall: I’m talking about you. | |
| Zuckerberg: Well, Senator, I try not to come to DC. | |
| Zuckerberg, responding to Senator Tom Udall: The most important thing that I care about right now is making sure that no one interferes in the elections coming up this year. | |
| Zuckerberg says that being responsible for the content on the platform is not incompatible with being a tech company rather than a publisher. | |
| Sullivan: Which are you? Are you a tech company? Or are you the world’s largest publisher? | |
| Zuckerberg: I view us as a tech company... I agree that we’re responsible for the content, but we don’t produce the content. | |
| Sullivan: “Do you think Facebook is too powerful?” | |
| Zuckerberg: “We need to have a conversation about the right regulation.” | |
| Sullivan: “Regulation can cement the dominant power... One of my biggest concerns is that the next Facebook, the guy in the dorm, that you are becoming so dominant that we won’t be able to have the next Facebook.” | |
| Zuckerberg: [doesn’t mention his aggressive acquisition of rival startups] | |
| A moment of levity when Senator Dan Sullivan tries to get Zuckerberg to say that Facebook could only have been built in America. | |
| Zuck doesn’t bite, noting that China has a lot of great tech companies. | |
| Sullivan: You’re supposed to say yes. | |
| Hirono brings up the fact that discriminatory advertising is still possible on Facebook, despite its promises. | |
| Just last month, fair housing groups filed a federal lawsuit over this. | |
| Hirono asks why they haven’t managed to fix this yet. | |
| Zuck says that the company relies a lot on users to flag content that is discriminatory, but as of now, users can’t actually tell the precise targeting that an advertiser is using. | |
| Senator Mazie Hirono brings up Immiration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and its interest in using social media data to profile immigrants. She asks: Does Facebook intent to cooperate with this ‘extreme vetting’ process to help Ice target people for deporation? | |
| Zuck says that Facebook would not proactively cooperate with Ice, but does comply with legal requests for information. | |
| Flake: Do you believe Russia or China have harvested Facebook data and have profiles on users? | Flake: Do you believe Russia or China have harvested Facebook data and have profiles on users? |
| Zuck: We have kicked off an investigation. “I imagine we’ll find some things.” Says they don’t have specific knowledge of efforts by other nation states but says they assume other countries will try to abuse the system. | Zuck: We have kicked off an investigation. “I imagine we’ll find some things.” Says they don’t have specific knowledge of efforts by other nation states but says they assume other countries will try to abuse the system. |