On Tuesday, Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg face questioning from U.S. Senators while sitting in a chair topped with a booster cushion. The mystified public watched as a majority of the senators threw softballs at the befuddled billionaire.
At least two senators, John Kennedy and Ted Cruz, said what was on the minds of the general public.
Sen. John Kennedy told Zuckerberg, “Here is what everybody has been trying to tell you today. I say this gently. Your user agreement sucks. You can spot me 75 IQ points. If I can figure it out, you can figure it out. The purpose of the user agreement is to cover Facebook’s rear end. It is not to inform your users about their rights. You know that and I know that. I am going to suggest to you that you go back home and rewrite it. Tell you your $1,200-an-hour lawyers—no disrespect, they are good—tell them you want it written in English and not in Swahili. The average American needs to be able to understand. That would be a start. Are you willing, as a Facebook user, are you willing to give me more control over my data?”
“I will say that there are a great many Americans who I think are deeply concerned that Facebook and other tech companies are engaged in a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship,” said Senator Ted Cruz. “There have been numerous instances with Facebook. In May of 2016, Gizmodo reported that Facebook had purposefully and routinely suppressed conservative stories from trending news. In addition to that, Facebook has initially shut down the Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day page, and most recently blocked Trump supporters Diamond and Silk’s page with 1.2 million Facebook followers after determining their content and brand were “unsafe to the community.” In your testimony, you say that you have 15,000 to 20,000 people working on security and content review. Mr. Zuckerberg, do you feel it’s your responsibility to assess users, whether they are good and positive connections or ones that those 15,000 to 20,000 people deem unacceptable or deplorable?”
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