Mark Zuckerberg Testimony

[HockeyGod]

I had a particularly long drive today - 4.5 hours - and turned on npr. They happened to air all of Mark Zuckerber's testimony before 2 Senate Committees. It was fascinating. What I took away:

1. MZ was fairly eloquent in his speaking and was respectful, but got repetitive to the point of almost sounding condescending. Every response started with "Senator."

2. I was flabbergasted at how little Senators were prepare to question and/or understood how Facebook operated. At some point, MZ should have just started each round of questioning with "Senator, it already does that." Many didn't get the concept of what Facebook actually did...that Facebook didn't technically sell anyone's data, but instead sold access through apps. There were actually issues related to selling targeting information that turned out to be discriminatory as well as the targeted manipulation ads by foreign agents.

3. 40 some Senators needed to ask questions? MZ experienced 5 hours of questions most of which were repetitive. Senators left the room back to their offices - free to work, eat, meet with people or take naps. Clearly some of them did that because they didn't see what a train wreck some of the questioning was. It was giving them an opportunity to have their 5 minute sound bites to send back to their constituents.

4. I'm conflicted about the whole privacy/informed consent. Yes, we are given the policies and yes we should read them, but if we read every single user agreement we wouldn't have time to actually use services. On the other hand, if people clearly understood how to use privacy settings some of the issue would not have been so egregious. There's fault all around and the systems need to be better.

I'm typically quite a pro-government and regulation advocate, but with these people in charge I'm frightened.

I am concerned that Facebook did some things that were sketchy, didn't inform people what happened, and are trying to fix their systems on their own accord. One Senator put it very pointedly (paraphrasing) - you sit here today and speak as though you operate a non-profit, but you are in fact a zillion dollar for profit.

A short montage of examples: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/zuckerberg-explains-facebook-to-a-room-full-of-confused-senators_us_5acd3233e4b09212968cb23f

[TheScarletBlade]

It also seems like you don't care that an "unbiased" social media platformed deemed any non-liberal though as dangerous and removed it?

[Oniya]

I dunno - I saw plenty of 'non-liberal thought' on there over the past few years.

[Ket]

It also seems like you don't care that an "unbiased" social media platformed deemed any non-liberal though as dangerous and removed it?

I see plenty of non-liberal though every single day on Facebook. They do not just delete stuff they don't like. They delete things that go against their policies. I've known a few liberals and progressives who have been silenced on Facebook. Please don't make generalized and broad-sweeping statements without clear evidence to back them up.

[Eye of Horus]

I was rather disappointed with the hearing - they wasted a golden opportunity to force Facebook to crack down on fake / bot accounts and to force some kind of truly independent fact-checking that would police the worst of the “dark ads” used to manipulate public opinion.

The EU may also try and haul Zuckerberg in for questioning, so fingers crossed for that. Though he has already refused to turn up to the UK inquiry (into Cambridge Analytica using Facebook to spread propaganda in the run up to the Brexit referendum).