Zuckerberg Spars With Senators at Private D.C. Dinner
September 19 2019 - 1:32PM
Dow Jones News
By John D. McKinnon and Lindsay Wise
WASHINGTON -- Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off a
lobbying trip to the capital by sparring with senators at a private
dinner over a range of online woes including election security,
privacy and competition.
One attendee, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), described the
meeting as a mix of criticism and constructive dialogue over the
tech industry's "repeated failures" to protect election security
and consumer privacy.
"We had [a] serious, substantive conversation even when we may
have differed," Mr. Blumenthal said in a statement. He added that
he welcomed "the strong, constructive interest shown by Mr.
Zuckerberg."
Mr. Blumenthal has been sharply critical of Facebook,
particularly over its privacy and election missteps of recent
years.
Wednesday night's dinner was held at a high-end restaurant
called Ris in downtown Washington. It was organized by Sen. Mark
Warner (D., Va.), who has become a leader in developing policy
solutions to some of the internet problems that have become a
growing worry in Washington.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for Mr. Warner said the discussion
included "the role and responsibility of social media platforms in
protecting our democracy, and what steps Congress should take to
defend our elections, protect consumer data and encourage
competition in the social media space."
On Thursday, Mr. Zuckerberg was expected to have more private
meetings with Democratic and Republican lawmakers on a range of
issues, including privacy and election security as well as
potential antitrust concerns, content regulation and data
portability.
Mr. Zuckerberg's meetings are aimed at giving the Facebook
founder a chance to pitch his own vision for moderate internet
regulation and seek to placate lawmakers who are weighing stricter
standards for lightly regulated platforms.
In the wake of a series of disclosures about questionable
practices at Facebook and other internet companies, lawmakers have
been considering stringent new regulation of platforms in areas
such as user privacy and content moderation.
No action appears imminent on any of the measures. But one idea
that has gained attention is placing new limits on the sweeping
legal immunity that platforms enjoy for harms caused by their
users. Mr. Zuckerberg was expected to meet with at least one
lawmaker, Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), who has advocated such an
approach.
Mr. Zuckerberg was also expected to pitch lawmakers on a
different vision of internet regulation, one that includes more
self-regulation by the companies. The visit also will give Mr.
Zuckerberg a chance to tout progress in Facebook's compliance with
a recently announced $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade
Commission over privacy missteps.
The Facebook co-founder is expected to meet with Sen. Mike Lee
(R., Utah), who is chairman of the Senate antitrust subcommittee.
Facebook is under antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade
Commission, and could soon face a separate investigation by the
Justice Department. Mr. Lee has raised concerns about possible
duplication of effort by the federal agencies.
Mr. Zuckerberg also met with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) on
Thursday evening. The two discussed data privacy and election
security.
The visit represents Mr. Zuckerberg's first foray into Capitol
Hill since two days of hearings in spring 2018. At the time,
following damaging revelations about Facebook's privacy practices,
Mr. Zuckerberg said that it was "inevitable that there will need to
be some regulation." But he also cautioned lawmakers, "You have to
be careful about what regulations you put in place."
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com and Lindsay
Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 19, 2019 13:17 ET (17:17 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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