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What is strange to me why did the Facebook person try to explain the term to the Senator? I’m no lawyer, and this is just my first reaction about what she answe

What is strange to me why did the Facebook person try to explain the term to the Senator? I’m no lawyer, and this is just my first reaction about what she answered based on what little I know. These Senate hearings are not jovial chats among friends. They are in the same ballpark as depositions, or interviews with law enforcement officiers. You are not there to make the opposition’s work easier. (Assuming you with counsels decided that the best option for you/your company is to appear.) You have to be curteous, and truthfull. But you absolutelly should not go into “guessing what the question might be”. When he asks “Will you commit ending finsta?” I would answer “At facebook we have no feature or setting named finsta. We cannot commit to end what we don’t offer.” And let him explain what he thinks finsta means to him. In casual conversations we often try to answer the question we think we should have been asked. This is not such an occasion.

rsj_hn 5y ago
This whole thing is a performative display, so might as well take the opportunity to make the Senator look out of touch in their photo-op. Hearings were originally intended to be fact finding sessions. During an era in which 'Newspapers' were an experimental new technology, it was still a good idea to get all the lawmakers into a room and bring in witnesses to present different sides of an issue. And that might have been the case in the 19th Century, but in the post-war administrative state, Senators do not actually hold hearings to gather information as they have teams of full time aides that do that for them with modern technologies like the internet and the telephone that have obviated the need for hearings. In the modern world, hearings are an opportunity to give speeches in front of cameras, to ask questions that embarrass your enemies and make your allies look good. Therefore Facebook is correctly using the hearings in their modern form, by trying to make the questioners look bad by pointing out how out of touch they are.
- frijole 5y ago
  And it's working.
- fidesomnes 5y ago
  newspapers were new "in the 19th Century" jesus christ the college educated are morons.

rsj_hn 5y ago

This whole thing is a performative display, so might as well take the opportunity to make the Senator look out of touch in their photo-op. Hearings were originally intended to be fact finding sessions. During an era in which 'Newspapers' were an experimental new technology, it was still a good idea to get all the lawmakers into a room and bring in witnesses to present different sides of an issue. And that might have been the case in the 19th Century, but in the post-war administrative state, Senators do not actually hold hearings to gather information as they have teams of full time aides that do that for them with modern technologies like the internet and the telephone that have obviated the need for hearings. In the modern world, hearings are an opportunity to give speeches in front of cameras, to ask questions that embarrass your enemies and make your allies look good. Therefore Facebook is correctly using the hearings in their modern form, by trying to make the questioners look bad by pointing out how out of touch they are.

frijole 5y ago
And it's working.
fidesomnes 5y ago
newspapers were new "in the 19th Century" jesus christ the college educated are morons.