Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg faced criticism Tuesday from senators over his company's handling of user data in a Capitol Hill hearing that could amount to a reckoning on the technology industry and its practices.
"Let me just cut to the chase. If you and other social media companies do not get your act in order, none of us are going to have any privacy anymore," Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., told Zuckerberg, who was making his first appearance on Capitol Hill, underscoring the severity of Facebook's crisis.
Clad in a dark suit and bright blue tie rather than his signature gray T-shirt, Zuckerberg offered contrition for his company's mishandling of personal information from up to 87 million unsuspecting Facebook users that landed in the hands of Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm that worked on Donald Trump's campaign.
His opening statement closely mirrored prepared remarks that circulated Monday.
The billionaire tech executive is also scheduled to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.
The congressional grilling adds to the mounting crisis at the Menlo Park, Calif., company, which has been on the defense since it downplayed the effect of Russian interference on its platform during the 2016 presidential election.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal has also resulted in a new Federal Trade Commission investigation looking into whether Facebook violated a 2011 consent decree requiring the company to properly inform users about changes to their privacy settings.
The biggest threat to Facebook, however, would be new regulations that challenge the company's lifeblood: access to increasing amounts of personal data from its 2 billion users.
Rather than wait for that worst-case scenario, Facebook in recent days has announced a slew of changes aimed at boosting transparency for users and limiting how much data are accessible to outside apps. Zuckerberg has also expressed support for the Honest Ads Act, a bipartisan proposal to apply the same disclosure rules to political ads online as those on television or print media.
