Original title: key issues of Zuckerberg's' customs clearance 'congressional hearing pending
Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, attended the second congressional hearing on the "theft" of user information on the 11th. Many media confirmed that the hearing was more difficult, but Zuckerberg once again "cleared the customs.".
Zuckerberg acknowledged that it was "inevitable" for social media companies to be regulated by the government. However, key issues such as how to regulate and what to regulate remain unresolved.
evade the crucial point
The hearing was convened by the house energy and Commerce Committee and lasted for five hours. 55 members of the House asked questions to Zuckerberg one after another, each for about four minutes.
The associated press, CNN and other media confirmed that, compared with the joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Commerce Committee the day before, the congressmen were obviously more prepared. The questions focus on three aspects, namely, personal data, privacy settings and whether Facebook is biased against American conservatives.
Zuckerberg's reply was well behaved, apologized many times, and promised to protect users' privacy and security through "multi pronged approach" in the future. However, he showed his "attitude" in the face of sharp questions.
For example, Zuckerberg told the house of representatives that as the Internet becomes more and more important in people's lives around the world, government regulation is "inevitable"; but he also called on members to consider that regulation will do much more harm to small and medium-sized enterprises than large enterprises such as Facebook when making laws. Facebook previously advocated self-regulation of enterprises, but its position gradually softened due to data theft.
Another example is Republican representative Martha & middot; Blackburn of Tennessee, who asked Zuckerberg to answer "yes" or "no", whether she would assist congress in passing a bill restricting Internet service providers and technology companies from sharing users' browsing records. Zuckerberg did not answer as required, saying only that he was "unfamiliar" with the details of the bill.
Zuckerberg admits that Facebook even collects information from unregistered users for 'security reasons'. Zuckerberg answered "I don't know", "I don't know" or "I'll reply later" to questions about how unregistered users delete Facebook's personal data and how often Facebook collects information from netizens around the world by using codes embedded in websites or browsers.
A victory
The media criticized that members of both houses of congress raised "grandfathers' questions". Many people knew little about the operation mode of Internet enterprises such as Facebook, big data, artificial intelligence and other fields. Zuckerberg's answer was to "popularize basic terms" for members almost twice his age. Overall, Zuckerberg, 33, won.
In the view of Helio & middot; Fred & middot; Garcia, a professor at Columbia University in New York, Zuckerberg's "answering skills" are very special: first, the responsibility should be shared with the 'team'; second, for questions involving policy or legislation, 'agree in principle' and 'don't commit to details'; third, for questions involving policy or legislation,' agree in principle '; Thirdly, any question should start with 'Mr. member' or 'Ms. member', and try to show 'obedience' and 'respect'.
According to the media review, Zuckerberg mentioned a number of new initiatives, but did not give details, including that Facebook will protect users' privacy in accordance with the European Union's general data protection regulations, which came into effect on May 25, accelerate the development of artificial intelligence technology to identify hate speech, and organize 20000 people to engage in security and content censorship.
In addition, Zuckerberg admitted that his personal data had also been illegally obtained and used by Cambridge analytics. He also did not mention the details. He only said that Facebook "mistakenly believed" Cambridge analytics, believing that it had deleted all user data as promised.
More questions
Greg Walden, chairman of the energy and Commerce Commission, asked Zuckerberg: 'Facebook has grown, but I'm afraid it's immature. Is Facebook going too fast and breaking too many rules? "The Associated Press reported that both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party proposed legislation to regulate Internet companies such as Facebook, but they did not know how to regulate them, or even what the biggest target should be. Two days of congressional hearings did not mention the regulatory legislation timetable. Mr. Walden said the energy and Commerce Commission would ask executives of some other Internet companies to testify. Google CEO sundal & middot; Pichai and twitter CEO Jack & middot; Dorsey are expected to attend follow-up hearings.
The US media infers that the investigation of "through Russia" has yet to find Russia's "real hammer" to help Donald Trump run for the US president in 2016, and the theft of Facebook data may become a breakthrough in the investigation. Last year, members of Congress asked the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter to attend a number of "through Russia" investigation hearings, and all three companies sent lawyers to attend.
In addition, it remains to be seen whether the willingness of the Republican and democratic parties to regulate Internet companies such as Facebook can be translated into law, and the lobbying groups outside the house of Congress are powerful. 'My worry is that some people are trying to pass a very broad privacy law, and those lobbyists will eat it up alive, 'says Alvaro bedoua, a former congressman's adviser.' the industry's lobbying efforts in Congress and state legislatures can easily overwhelm those advocating consumer protection. '