Zuckerberg hearing: Facebook founder attacked by US politicians for site's 'bias' and failure to protect users - as it happened
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After navigating nearly five hours of questions from 44 US senators on Tuesday about the abuse of citizen's data, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has done it all again on Wednesday.
Once again, he was attacked on a range of fronts: as well as the company's failure to protect its users data, politicians questioned the site's perceived bias against conservative voices, and its use for selling illegal materials like drugs.
The billionaire Facebook boss will testified before the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, which was seeking answers following revelations that Cambridge Analytica harvested personal information from 87 million Facebook profiles for the purpose of voter profiling.
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Mr Zuckerberg's comments that most people don't read long-winded privacy policies are true.
A study from 2016 found that 98 per cent of people didn't bother reading a privacy policy for a fake social network. The policy asked users for their consent to hand all of their private information over to the NSA, as well as give up their first born child.
One hour into the hearing and there's yet to be any truly ground-breaking revelations. Perhaps not surprising considering this comes after almost five hours of questions on Tuesday.
Perhaps the most surprising Mr Zuckerberg admitting that his own personal data was sold to "malicious third parties" as part of the data abuse scandal.
Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn takes her turn and immediately shuts down Mr Zuckerberg for filibustering.
Ms Blackburn, a conservative Republican, states: "We need some rules and regulations."
Senators were criticized yesterday for being too soft on Mr Zuckerberg. A lot of the current chat on social media is being directed at the inadequacies of the House representatives.
Congressman Michael Doyle is amazed to learn that Mr Zuckerberg learned of certain Cambridge Analytica revelations through the media.
"Do you routinely learn about violations through the press," he asks.
"Sometimes we do," Mr Zuckerberg responds.
This pertinent cartoon appeared behind Mr Zuckerberg during the hearing earlier.
"I didn't read all of the shrink-wrap license agreement on my new software until after I opened it," the character Dilbert states. "Apparently I agreed to spend to rest of my life as a towel boy in Bill Gates' new mansion."
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky opens by listing a string of public apologies that Mr Zuckerberg has issued over the last 10 years.
"This proves to me that self-regulation simply does not work," she says.
Mrs Schakowsky asks how many other third parties gained access to data besides Cambridge Analytica.
Mr Zuckerberg says there are others but refuses to say how many.
Congressman Butterfield moves the questioning onto the subject of racial diversity, particularly in Silicon Valley. He asks what Mr Zuckerberg is doing to improve upon it.
"I think we know that the industry is behind on this," Mr Zuckerberg says.
"Do you plan to add an African American onto your leadership team?" Mr Butterfield asks.
Zuckerberg says he would like to work with the congressman on the issue.
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