Welcome to the Financial Services Committee, Mr. Zuckerberg. SLAP!!!

You may be under the mistaken impression that a Congressional “hearing” is an opportunity for our nation’s lawmakers — in their zeal to craft legislation and regulations that allow for clarity, guidance and fairness in our daily lives — to “hear” from relevant witnesses.
Oh you sad, sorry child. A Congressional hearing is exactly the opposite. It’s an official summoning of a witness to hear from Congress.
That’s the only inference you can draw from Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance last week before the House Financial Services Committee. The panel got very little out of him, unless what they were going for was a removal of every last facial feature, slap by slap by slap. He was there to talk Libra and Calibra. They were there to unload about every transgression in Facebook’s history. Zuckerberg tried his best. We’re undergoing an independent civil rights audit, he’d tell them after a question on violations. SLAP! I’m not familiar with the data on that, he’d yammer. SLAP! Congresswoman, may I offer some context around — SLAP!! His water bottle started moving ever more frequently to his lips, and was providing so little relief, that I began to think he might just pour the whole damn thing over his head. Through it all he made unfortunate attempts to remember and mimic what it looks like when other people smile affably.
Better questions than the David Marcus hearing
Having watched the testimony in July of David Marcus — the Facebook executive in charge of Calibra and the company’s emissary to the Libra Association — before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, I can say that the House members grilling Zuckerberg seemed more prepared. As for Zuckerberg, outside of a few easily remembered talking points (we’re not in charge, we’re just one member… because lots of international bodies are based in Switzerland… if we can’t meet U.S. regulations we won’t launch… because if the U.S. doesn’t, China will… ), Zuckerberg seemed woefully lost. Many times it felt like he had studied for the Chemistry test, but this was French.
And all I could think about was, with all their billions, is Facebook or Zuckerberg too stupid, too arrogant, or too naïve to train for an encounter like this?
There seems to be a tendency among billionaires, especially tech billionaires (after all, I know so many of them) to believe that conquering business rivals and knowing, I mean actually knowing, what an algorithm is means you can talk circles around whatever suit or pants suit sits in Congress. But these people comprise one of the many committees that establish our monetary policy. They know about things like the complexity of international settlements. They know how poorly banks serve poor neighborhoods. They understand the importance and the influence of the American dollar around the world, and how critical it is to stability. They are not horsing around.
Some stand-outs among the questioners
Some of them didn’t even want to hear a word from him, but it was different from speech making. For instance, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty of Ohio is a staunch advocate for civil rights. As Chair of the Sub-Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, and Vice-Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, her views on the obligation of the private sector to account for their record on diverse asset management, fair housing, diversity and inclusion in privacy and security, and representation in management ranks, cannot have been unknown to the Facebook team.
At least it SHOULDN’T have been unknown. She peppered Zuckerberg for “yes” or “no” answers on whether Facebook was employing any diverse firms, or woman-owned firms, to manage their assets, or represent them in law suits; she asked if he had reviewed the legislation she was working on in the sector that was sent to him, or had read the report from Facebook’s own consultant hired after fair-housing violations in Facebook real estate ads were unearthed. It went on an on (you think five minutes is a short time, try being Zuckerberg facing Joyce Beatty).
Likewise, Congressman Al Green from Texas was aghast that Zuckerberg couldn’t tell him whether any of the companies in the Libra Association were headed by minorities, women, or LBGTQ+ persons.
Facebook’s record and indicator of the future?
There were other significant questions and concerns about how encryption on WhatsApp and soon on Facebook Messenger put children in danger. And Andrea Ocasio-Cortez, who is extremely good at this Q&A stuff, made him squirm as she asked about Facebook’s policy not to fact check political ads in the upcoming election. Theoretically, could she target black zip codes and advertise the wrong election date? Or advertise to Republicans that they voted for the Green New Deal? He was incapable of clearly articulating what content would or wouldn’t be taken down.
Regardless of whether you agree politically with his questioners, you have to ask yourself — how does he not know who is on that committee and what subjects are their passions? Do they wander in accidentally? Names picked from a hat?
To some degree, it’s likely Zuckerberg and his team looked ahead to this event and imagined, “They don’t like us. It’s not going to go well. Gonna have to sit there for a day and take it.”
But if their goal is regulation that goes their way, how much better it would be to actually try and appear concerned and responsible.
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