By Deepa Seetharaman
Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is planning to
testify before Congress about the way the Silicon Valley giant
manages its users' data, people familiar with the matter said
Tuesday.
It would mark, setting the stage for a potentially pivotal
moment for the 14-year-old company at a time of mounting tension
with regulators and lawmakers. It would mark Mr. Zuckerberg's first
public testimony before U.S. lawmakers. Mr. Zuckerberg, who has
rarely strayed beyond carefully managed public appearances, now is
resigned to the fact that he will have to testify, the people said.
Facebook officials are currently preparing for this
inevitability.
Many details have yet to be hammered out, the people added, and
Mr. Zuckerberg hasn't formally accepted any requests for him to
appear. In an interview with CNN last week, he said he would be
open to testifying if he was the "right person" to do so.
Earlier this month, Facebook disclosed that information about
tens of millions of its users was sold to data-analytics firm
Cambridge Analytica, which worked with the Trump campaign in 2016
and other Republican candidates.
The episode shed light on how little Facebook has invested in
ensuring developers follow its rules. Selling user data violates
Facebook policies., and Cambridge Analytica has said it followed
Facebook's policies.
On March 21, after days of silence on the matter, Mr. Zuckerberg
announced a series of steps meant to rein in outsiders' access to
Facebook user data.
The news intensified political pressure on Facebook, which was
already under fire for failing to detect Russian-backed
manipulation of its platform and for allowing fabricated news
articles, violent live videos and other forms of objectionable
content spread across its services.
Congressional aides who were briefed by Facebook staffers last
week said the meetings left some 60 questions unanswered. Facebook
officials promised to answer them at a later date, including
whether firms other than Cambridge Analytica mishandled user
data.
Lawmakers also want to know whether there are more copies of
underlying Facebook user data. Facebook officials have said it is
possible but they aren't sure. Mr. Zuckerberg, in a later interview
with The Wall Street Journal, reiterated that Facebook would seek
to identify bad actors but wouldn't be able to uncover where all
the data ended up and how it is being deployed.
On Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee asked Mr. Zuckerberg
to appear at an April 10 hearing on data privacy. Committee
Chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) also invited Sundar Pichai,
chief executive of Alphabet Inc.'s Google, and Twitter Inc. Chief
Executive Jack Dorsey.
Last week, bipartisan leaders of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee and Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and
Transportation separately called on Mr. Zuckerberg to testify about
Facebook's privacy and data-use standards.
A congressional aide with knowledge of the matter said Mr.
Zuckerberg is expected to testify in front of the House Energy and
Commerce Committee next month. Mr. Zuckerberg could appear in front
of the other congressional committees as well, although other
people familiar with the matter said the timing and logistics of
Mr. Zuckerberg's appearances are still being worked out.
A spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee said
it is working with Facebook "to determine a day and time for Mr.
Zuckerberg to testify." A representative for the Senate Judiciary
Committee declined to comment beyond the announcement Monday. A
spokesman for the Senate Commerce Committee couldn't be immediately
reached.
A Facebook spokesman reiterated Tuesday it had received and was
reviewing U.S. lawmakers' invitations. Twitter declined to comment
Tuesday, and Google didn't immediately respond. CNN earlier
reported the news that Mr. Zuckerberg was coming to terms with the
fact that he will need to testify.
Facebook's shares extended their recent decline on Tuesday,
falling 4.9% in a broader market drop. Facebook's market value has
dropped by more than $95 billion since March 16.
And shares in Twitter plunged Tuesday, ending down 11.4% after
short-selling firm Citron Research said in a post on Twitter that
it is the social media company most vulnerable to privacy
regulation because of the way it sells user data.
"Twitter is public by its nature," the social-media company
tweeted, which makes data harvesting less controversial. Twitter
also denied Citron's claim that its data-licensing business sells
users' private messages.
The hearing is expected to place Mr. Zuckerberg in the kind of
public, unpredictable spectacle that he has largely avoided. His
public appearances, in town hall gatherings with Facebook users or
students or during his tour of America last year, are often tightly
scripted. When he acknowledges shortcomings or criticism of
Facebook in such settings, often there isn't time for follow-up
questions.
"Much more so than the other companies in the hot seat, Facebook
is strongly identified with a single, long-term leader," said
Daphne Keller, who studies platforms' legal responsibilities at the
Stanford Center for Internet and Society and previously was
Google's associate general counsel. "I'm sure Facebook is hoping
that he can put a human face on the company and restore badly
damaged trust."
On Monday, Mr. Zuckerberg declined to appear before a U.K.
parliamentary committee seeking evidence on how companies acquire
user data from Facebook, choosing to send a deputy instead,
according to a letter from Facebook published by the parliamentary
committee. The letter said either Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's chief
technology officer, or Chris Cox, the chief product officer, would
appear before the committee after the Easter parliamentary
recess.
"Facebook fully recognizes the level of public and parliamentary
interest in these issues and support your belief that these issues
must be addressed at the most senior levels of the company by those
in an authoritative position to answer your questions," said
Rebecca Stimson, head of public policy of Facebook UK, in a letter
Monday. "As such Mr. Zuckerberg has personally asked one of his
deputies to make themselves available to give evidence in person to
the committee."
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 27, 2018 20:46 ET (00:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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