You Thought You Had a Bad Tuesday

You thought you had a bad Tuesday?

You weren’t sitting in front of a bunch of hot lights and a swarm of photographers before a joint session of the Commerce and Judiciary committees on Capitol Hill.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was, and judging from coverage of his “performance,” he was a calm and cool customer, absorbing jibes, barbs, and other commentary and questions from a Senate with a wide range of perspectives (No report I’ve seen yet as to how many of the senators had taken campaign contributions from his inquisitors).

The Verge did a nice job of breaking down some of the key issues raised, and who raised them.

• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked about Facebook’s monopoly power (As in, IS Facebook one?). Zuckerberg: “It certainly doesn’t feel like that to me.”
• Multiple senators raised the issue of whether Zuckerberg might consider a paid, ad-free version of Facebook. Zuckerberg said it was possible, but that there would always be a free version.
• Leaning on AI to improve moderation on the platform: Zuckerberg “invoked the promise of AI to help Facebook quickly sort through hate speech and other problematic posts.”

In terms of actionability, Zuckerberg referred repeatedly to changes in the product that will better prevent data leakage and make privacy shortcuts easier to find, as well as restrict data shared with developers.

Will it be enough to keep regulation and/or legislation at bay? Doubtful. On the other hand, I hardly see a pro-regulatory government about to completely throw the book at one of the world’s most successful Internet companies.

So I’ll quote from that bastion of Congressional wisdom, SchoolHouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill”:

I’m just a bill
Yes I’m only a bill,
And I got as far as Capitol Hill.
Well, now I’m stuck in committee
And I’ll sit here and wait 
While a few key Congressmen discuss and debate
Whether they should let me be a law.
How I hope and pray that they will,
But today I am still just a bill.