Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, will appear before congressional committees in Washington this week to face U.S. lawmakers over privacy scandals and how the social media network harvests user data.
Zuckerberg is scheduled to appear before a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate’s Commerce and Judiciary committees. Here’s what you need to know.
When will Zuckerberg testify?
Zuckerberg will testify before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees on Tuesday. His testimony is set to get underway at 2:15 p.m. ET.
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On Wednesday, the Facebook boss will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a hearing dubbed “Facebook: Transparency and Use of Consumer Data.” His testimony is scheduled to get underway at 10 a.m. ET.
How to watch Zuckerberg’s hearings?
Global News will be livestreaming both hearings on our YouTube channel, as well as the live player above. You can also follow Zuckerberg’s testimony in the live blog below.
Why is Zuckerberg testifying?
Zuckerberg is set to publicly apologize to Congress after revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm affiliated with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, gathered personal information from 87 million users to try to influence the election. He’s apologized many times already, to users and the public, but it is the first time in his career that he has gone before Congress.
In prepared testimony released Monday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which he is expected to deliver Wednesday, Zuckerberg apologizes for fake news, hate speech, a lack of data privacy and Russian social media interference in the 2016 election.
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You can read the prepared statement below.
“But it’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well. That goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech, as well as developers and data privacy,” reads the prepared testimony. “We didn’t take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake. It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.”
Separately, Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post Monday that the company is establishing an independent election research commission that will look into the effects of social media on elections and democracy.
–with files from the Associated Press
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