Mark Zuckerberg Testifies on Facebook Before Skeptical Lawmakers

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's appearance before Congress turned into something of a pointed gripe session, with both Democratic and Republican senators attacking Facebook for failing to protect users’ data and stop Russian election interference, and raising questions about whether Facebook should be more heavily regulated. Of specific interest were the revelations that sensitive data of as many as 87 million Facebook users were harvested without explicit permission by a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, which was connected to the Trump campaign. Zuckerberg appeared confident and answered questions directly, and his performance helped bolster Facebook’s stock, which ended the day up 4.5 percent. It was the first of two marathon hearings; the second will be before the House Commerce Committee on April 11. He was forced to admit mistakes and take responsibility for his company’s actions — as have the many tobacco, pharmaceutical and bank executives who have been summoned to Washington. Zuckerberg sought to manage the discontent through a combination of contrition for missteps and calm explanations to complicated questions. And yet throughout, he was careful not to commit to any major changes in how the platform functions or how it sells advertising.