Facebook’s Zuckerberg Expects to Testify at Congressional Hearing - WSJ

It would mark Mr. Zuckerberg’s first public testimony in front of U.S. lawmakers. Mr. Zuckerberg, who has rarely strayed beyond carefully managed public appearances, now is resigned to the fact that he will have to testify, the people said. Facebook officials are currently preparing for this inevitability.

Many details have yet to be hammered out, the people added, and Mr. Zuckerberg hasn’t formally accepted any requests for him to appear. In an interview with CNN last week, Mr. Zuckerberg said he would be open to testifying if he was the “right person” to do so.

On March 21, after days of silence on the matter, Mr. Zuckerberg announced a series of steps meant to rein in outsiders’ access to Facebook user data.

The news intensified political pressure on Facebook, which was already under fire for failing to detect Russian-backed manipulation of its platform and for allowing fabricated news articles, violent live videos and other forms of objectionable content spread across its services.

Congressional aides who were briefed by Facebook staffers last week said the meetings left some 60 questions unanswered. Facebook officials promised to answer them at a later date, including whether firms other than Cambridge Analytica mishandled user data.

On Monday, the Senate Judiciary Committee asked Mr. Zuckerberg to appear at an April 10 hearing on data privacy. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) also invited Sundar Pichai, chief executive of AlphabetInc.’s Google, and TwitterInc. Chief Executive Jack Dorsey.

Facebook's current data crisis involving Cambridge Analytica has angered users and prompted government investigations. To understand what's happening now, you have to look back at Facebook's old policies from 2007 to 2014. WSJ's Shelby Holliday explains. Illustration: Laura Kammerman

.

Last week, bipartisan leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation separately called on Mr. Zuckerberg to testify about Facebook’s privacy and data-use standards.

It isn’t yet clear which committees Mr. Zuckerberg would appear before. A spokeswoman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee said it is working with Facebook “to determine a day and time for Mr. Zuckerberg to testify. A representative for the Senate Judiciary Committee declined to comment beyond the announcement Monday. A spokesman for the Senate Commerce Committee couldn’t be immediately reached.

A Facebook spokesman reiterated Tuesday it had received and was reviewing U.S. lawmakers’ invitations. Twitter declined to comment Tuesday, and Google didn’t immediately respond. CNN earlier reported the news that Mr. Zuckerberg was coming to terms with the fact that he will need to testify.

Facebook’s shares extended their recent decline on Tuesday, falling 4.9% in a broader market drop. Facebook’s market value has dropped by more than $95 billion since March 16.

And shares in Twitter plunged Tuesday, ending down 11.4% after short-selling firm Citron Research said in a post on Twitter that it is the social media company most vulnerable to privacy regulation because of the way it sells user data.​

“Twitter is public by its nature,” the social-media company tweeted from an official account following the Citron report. Twitter said its data-licensing business doesn’t sell users private messages—something Citron claimed Twitter did.

On Monday, Mr. Zuckerberg declined to appear before a U.K. parliamentary committee seeking evidence on how companies acquire user data from Facebook, choosing to send a deputy instead, according to a letter from Facebook published by the parliamentary committee. The letter said either Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s chief technology officer, or Chris Cox, the chief product officer, would appear before the committee after the Easter parliamentary recess.

“Facebook fully recognizes the level of public and parliamentary interest in these issues and support your belief that these issues must be addressed at the most senior levels of the company by those in an authoritative position to answer your questions,” said Rebecca Stimson, head of public policy of Facebook UK, in a letter Monday. “As such Mr. Zuckerberg has personally asked one of his deputies to make themselves available to give evidence in person to the committee.”

—Jenny Gross and Siobhan Hughes contributed to this article.

http://archive.is/WrJLc