The Zuckerberg hearing is nothing if not eye-opening. Because today, we’re getting a pretty revealing look at the politicians who want the government to play a bigger role in the regulation of technology.
A bunch of 65 year olds asking him how all this stuff works has got to be Zuckerberg’s worst living nightmare
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) April 10, 2018
One thing is clear from the Facebook hearing. Many Senators on this committee have no idea how any of this works, are reading staff-written questions & have very little ability to ask meaningful follow up questions.
— Guy Cecil (@guycecil) April 10, 2018
For example:
Hatch: "How do you sustain a business model in which users don't pay for your service?"
Zuckerberg: "Senator, we run ads" *smiles*
Hatch: "I see. That's great." https://t.co/1PQ3joAtC8— Daniella Díaz (@DaniellaMicaela) April 10, 2018
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tells Sen. Orrin Hatch: "Senator, we run ads." pic.twitter.com/OxGfjz8sHI
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 10, 2018
Oof.
Senators seem not to understand that if Facebook didn't have advertising, it would have to charge customers in order to stay in business #Zuckerberg
— Matthew Sheffield (@mattsheffield) April 10, 2018
And of course there’s more where that came from:
Sen. Graham: "Is Twitter the same as what you do?"
Mark Zuckerberg: "It overlaps with portions of what we do."
Graham: "You don't think you have a monopoly?"
MZ: "It certainly doesn't feel that way to me." https://t.co/CbFO899XlU pic.twitter.com/NLWj3AqFZN— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 10, 2018
Lindsey Graham, given chance to ask Facebook CEO anything:
"Is Twitter the same as what you do?"
— Alastair Gee (@alastairgee) April 10, 2018
Don’t worry … Dems are beclowning themselves, too:
Senator Bill Nelson asks Zuckerberg if users can avoid that weird thing where you tell someone on Facebook you like chocolate and all of a sudden you start seeing ads for chocolate.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 10, 2018
Bill Nelson is worried that he’s seeing a lot of Facebook ads about chocolatehttps://t.co/X7JIPiAP8g pic.twitter.com/x0Nehiex0e
— Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) April 10, 2018
Leahy is asking Zuckerberg to identity groups on the internet by showing him a piece of poster board
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) April 10, 2018
Sen. Leahy asks #Zuckerberg about unverified advertisements and users. Zuck says he isn't familiar with the specific pieces of content pictured, and refers Leahy to his team after the testimony. pic.twitter.com/xGCEINhzHl
— Casey Mendoza (@CaseyMdoza) April 10, 2018
Genuine looks of confusion just hit the senate panel when Mark Zuckerberg said "cookies"
— Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) April 10, 2018
This is all going just swimmingly.
“If I understand you correctly, Mr. Zuckerberg, what you’re telling this committee is that this so-called ‘Facebook' is not actually a printed book of faces.” pic.twitter.com/IRQnOaKV64
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) April 10, 2018
"And in what library do you keep this so-called book of faces?" https://t.co/AYabIuoqK8
— Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) April 10, 2018
Sen. Nelson is about two minutes away from asking Zuckerberg to help him install an office printer
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) April 10, 2018
Will Zuckerberg give all these senators free CDs to install Facebook?
— Jim Antle (@jimantle) April 10, 2018
"Now, is there a button you push to start the Intertube?" https://t.co/1cHOqw0u4u
— SFK (@stephenkruiser) April 10, 2018
https://twitter.com/alwaysonoffense/status/983792056400302081
https://twitter.com/RobProvince/status/983797564804878337
Just shoot us.
Zuckerberg/Facebook hearing the first colorable argument I've yet encountered for populating the Senate w/Millennials. God what a crapshow.
— Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) April 10, 2018
***
Update:
For what it’s worth, it seems Orrin Hatch’s question about how Facebook makes money was not in fact as cringeworthy as initial reports suggested. Via RedState’s Andrea Ruth:
Thx to @SenRonJohnson for clarifying the purpose of Hatch's question to Zuckerberg to @CNN's Alisyn Camerota, who apparently only had access to 12 seconds of video of the exchange
Here's the full video, showing that Hatch's question was for a summation of the longer discussion pic.twitter.com/jkSMZ9Fi1B
— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) April 11, 2018
Thanks to @secupp and @andylevy who fortunately had access to the full video of Senator Hatch's discussion about ads and transparency with Mark Zuckerberg before analyzing it on @HLNTV. pic.twitter.com/RAz9WXgXy1
— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) April 11, 2018
Join the conversation as a VIP Member