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> 2:50 PM EDT: Congressman Duncan from North Carolina is going to give Zuckerburg a small copy of the US Constitution. Showboating... Not to defend Facebook an

> 2:50 PM EDT: Congressman Duncan from North Carolina is going to give Zuckerburg a small copy of the US Constitution. Showboating... Not to defend Facebook and I admittedly have not watched any testimony or questioning, but I'm sure these politicians made no mention of FOSTA, SOPA, the PATRIOT Act, net neutrality, NSA domestic surveillance... Zuckerberg could have turned this all around on them.

mygo 9y ago
there's more than a handful of things that actually did happen that Zuckerberg could have "turned around" on them. And he didn't. Don't you wonder why?
- zie 9y ago
  No, he is clearly in damage control mode, trying desperately to keep his monopoly without any major concessions. Will be interesting to see how that works out for him, probably fairly well I would guess.
  - rhizome 9y ago
    Really? By my read Congress is begging him to do their jobs for them, asking the fox to design the henhouse.
    - zie 9y ago
      Indeed, They want, Facebook to "fix itself" to some meaningful degree. Except Facebook has little desire for actual change, so like I said, I imagine very little in practice will change, just a lot more "yay we <3 privacy" spam from their PR department.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- heurist 9y ago
  He knows regulation is inevitable and upsetting politicians would put him in a worse lobbying position. I still wish he would have turned it around on them.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > Don't you wonder why? No, his job at the hearing is to present an image of a corporate leader detached from the political fray, and specifically not to provide any fuel to any possible partisan political fire, which cannot possibly help him at this point.
Nelson69 9y ago
Or Equifax. FB is a giant company that has produced billions of dollars in value.. to complete the cliche, it was literally started in a college dorm room. Congress and the Senate want to look good, but they don't want to hurt the company. (Quite the opposite, the company's story is the stuff of American legends and there isn't a single elected rep or senator that wouldn't ask FB to consider their state if there was some sort of FB "HQ2" project.) More to the point, they have no idea how to "fix" the situation. Facebook does what it does and users freely give them tons and tons of valuable information. Equifax and company do what they do and it's all behind the scenes, it's not even possible to opt out and it would be devastating to your credit if you could. Facebook helped some electioneers target ads better and maybe moved the needle in an election, that shit has been happening since there have been elections. Equifax and company have cost countless people billions or even trillions of dollars in extra payments because their proprietary credit algorithm says they're a higher risk and we have no idea if it's a valid algorithm or not, but banks trust it.
- tareqak 9y ago
  Speaking of moving to their state: There was actually a Congressman (Mr. Cramer, North Dakota) who mentioned Silicon Valley bias, and thought that the moderators themselves were there too. He asked Zuckerburg to consider opening a Facebook location in middle America (name dropping a city or two in his own state of North Dakota). Zuckerburg clarified that the moderators were located around the world. [0] [0] https://youtu.be/h3vkyVC7Qj8?t=14044 https://youtu.be/h3vkyVC7Qj8?t=14044
- jiveturkey 9y ago
  you can opt out to a degree. you can freeze your credit making most queries impossible. i’ve paid deposits for utilities and cell service rather than unfreeze my credit. the opt out aspect isn’t perfect of course since id thieves can still steal the data, but with frozen credit at least it’s harder for them to use for critical purposes.
Steko 9y ago
Showboating is part of how politics works in a democracy but it can still produce real results.
tareqak 9y ago
A few did mention net neutrality and sex trafficking, but it was mostly (if not completely) patting themselves on the back for their part in stop government overreach for the former, and protecting the vulnerable / punishing bad actors in the latter. I'm just adding this to fill you in. The part that I found odd in terms of topics were the questions about: (1) apparent bias against conservatives from some Facebook-employed moderators because of incorrect or delayed actions taken. (2) the idea that Obama campaign "did the same thing". (3) Facebook allowing ads from allegedly illegal pharmacies in the wake of the opioid crisis. I'd actually go as far as to say that around 20% of the questions that the Senate and the House asked were unrelated to the events surrounding Facebook and their relationship with Cambridge Analytica.
acct1771 9y ago
He'll never do it, because if he makes their lives difficult, they'll Standard Oil his ass posthaste.

mygo 9y ago

there's more than a handful of things that actually did happen that Zuckerberg could have "turned around" on them. And he didn't. Don't you wonder why?

zie 9y ago
No, he is clearly in damage control mode, trying desperately to keep his monopoly without any major concessions. Will be interesting to see how that works out for him, probably fairly well I would guess.
- rhizome 9y ago
  Really? By my read Congress is begging him to do their jobs for them, asking the fox to design the henhouse.
  - zie 9y ago
    Indeed, They want, Facebook to "fix itself" to some meaningful degree. Except Facebook has little desire for actual change, so like I said, I imagine very little in practice will change, just a lot more "yay we <3 privacy" spam from their PR department.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
heurist 9y ago
He knows regulation is inevitable and upsetting politicians would put him in a worse lobbying position. I still wish he would have turned it around on them.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> Don't you wonder why? No, his job at the hearing is to present an image of a corporate leader detached from the political fray, and specifically not to provide any fuel to any possible partisan political fire, which cannot possibly help him at this point.

Nelson69 9y ago

Or Equifax. FB is a giant company that has produced billions of dollars in value.. to complete the cliche, it was literally started in a college dorm room. Congress and the Senate want to look good, but they don't want to hurt the company. (Quite the opposite, the company's story is the stuff of American legends and there isn't a single elected rep or senator that wouldn't ask FB to consider their state if there was some sort of FB "HQ2" project.) More to the point, they have no idea how to "fix" the situation. Facebook does what it does and users freely give them tons and tons of valuable information. Equifax and company do what they do and it's all behind the scenes, it's not even possible to opt out and it would be devastating to your credit if you could. Facebook helped some electioneers target ads better and maybe moved the needle in an election, that shit has been happening since there have been elections. Equifax and company have cost countless people billions or even trillions of dollars in extra payments because their proprietary credit algorithm says they're a higher risk and we have no idea if it's a valid algorithm or not, but banks trust it.

tareqak 9y ago
Speaking of moving to their state: There was actually a Congressman (Mr. Cramer, North Dakota) who mentioned Silicon Valley bias, and thought that the moderators themselves were there too. He asked Zuckerburg to consider opening a Facebook location in middle America (name dropping a city or two in his own state of North Dakota). Zuckerburg clarified that the moderators were located around the world. [0] [0] https://youtu.be/h3vkyVC7Qj8?t=14044 https://youtu.be/h3vkyVC7Qj8?t=14044
jiveturkey 9y ago
you can opt out to a degree. you can freeze your credit making most queries impossible. i’ve paid deposits for utilities and cell service rather than unfreeze my credit. the opt out aspect isn’t perfect of course since id thieves can still steal the data, but with frozen credit at least it’s harder for them to use for critical purposes.

Steko 9y ago

Showboating is part of how politics works in a democracy but it can still produce real results.

tareqak 9y ago

A few did mention net neutrality and sex trafficking, but it was mostly (if not completely) patting themselves on the back for their part in stop government overreach for the former, and protecting the vulnerable / punishing bad actors in the latter. I'm just adding this to fill you in. The part that I found odd in terms of topics were the questions about: (1) apparent bias against conservatives from some Facebook-employed moderators because of incorrect or delayed actions taken. (2) the idea that Obama campaign "did the same thing". (3) Facebook allowing ads from allegedly illegal pharmacies in the wake of the opioid crisis. I'd actually go as far as to say that around 20% of the questions that the Senate and the House asked were unrelated to the events surrounding Facebook and their relationship with Cambridge Analytica.

acct1771 9y ago

He'll never do it, because if he makes their lives difficult, they'll Standard Oil his ass posthaste.