After the Cambridge Analytica data breach, Mark Zuckerberg was summoned to Capitol Hill. Facebook's CEO on Wednesday, faced a second day of questioning over the company's role in the data leak and to explain how 87 million Facebook users data was harvested by a third party.
The world's largest social network, Facebook, had Zuckerberg testify before the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees. There he answered all questions related to privacy stemming from the harvested data by the firm, Cambridge Analytica.
1) Zuckerberg explained to senators where Facebook was created
According to Newsweek, the exchanges between Facebook's founder and the senators seemed rehearsed. In other words, the whole thing was synonymous to a sound bite.
Zuckerberg went into great detail about the company beginnings. In addition, he repeated on multiple occasions that Facebook started out in his dorm room in Harvard. While telling the story of Facebook, Democratic Senator Gary Peters from Michigan made fun of it.
2) The Mueller special counsel has reached out to Facebook
The American presidential campaign in 2016 was unprecedented. The rise of misinformation through social networks like Facebook was problematic. Furthermore, the alleged Russian interference in the election led to Facebook being interviewed by special counsel.
Zuckerberg said during the hearing that the company had been contacted by special counsel Robert Mueller about the potential meddling by a foreign power.
3) A paid Facebook version may be in the works
As the above report mentioned Zuckerberg said on two occasions Facebook will always be free. However, it's possible that the social network may offer upgrades for certain privileges or maybe create a version of Facebook that features no advertising.
4) Senator Ted Cruz exposed Facebook's political affiliations
The Texas Republican senator, during his interrogation, stated some pointed remarks towards Zuckerberg. Cruz did not just make subtle hints but accused Facebook of being a biased platform against conservatives.
Cruz backed up his claims b saying that Facebook had shut down a number of conservative pages.
Among them, he mentioned Chik-Fil-A Appreciation Day, a Fox News Reporter, several Catholic pages and supporters of the president.
5) Facebook's CEO believes data is still safe with his platform
The data scandal by Cambridge Analytica brought to light problems with safeguarding private information. As we know the data firm harvested information from over 87 million. When Zuckerberg was asked by Senator Dean Heller if he believed the data from millions of Americans were safer with them than the federal government he had a long pause. He responded with a "yes" answer.
