Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has one more day to go in front of Congress in terms of explaining what happened with Facebook and their inability to secure user data. But having watched his testimony from start to finish yesterday, I walk away with a handful key takeaways.
First, Zuckerberg took some shots. Some really good ones in fact. Take this one about Facebook’s user agreement:
"Here's what everybody has been trying to tell you today and I say this gently: Your user agreement sucks.The purpose of that user agreement is to cover Facebook's rear end. It's not to inform your users about their rights," @SenJohnKennedy blasts Mark Zuckerberg. pic.twitter.com/PJntv00rnP
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 10, 2018
That’s a good sound bite for the folks back home who are watching this on TV. Though perhaps some Senators could have been better prepared as evidenced by this:
https://twitter.com/DaniellaMicaela/status/983788007990837248
Surely Senator Hatch had a millennial in his office who could have explained how Facebook worked? I guess not.
Another takeaway, Zuckerberg said “I don’t know” or “I’ll get back to you” frequently when asked questions about how Facebook tracks users. It’s almost as if he couldn’t or wouldn’t answer those questions. Either that, or he was trying to invent a new drinking game. As in every time he said “I don’t know” or “I’ll get back to you” you take a drink. And though they kind of pushed, Senators let him off the hook. That was a mistake as I feel that they could have really held his feet to the fire on that front. But instead, I think he’ll escape to live another day.
What really raised eyebrows was this statement Zuckerberg said “there will always be a version of Facebook that is free” and “we don’t offer an option today for people to pay to not show ads.” Which implies that a paid version of Facebook might be in the works. Given the events of the last few weeks, that might be coming sooner rather than later.
Another eyebrow raising moment came in comments made by the Senators that some sort of legislation is on the way to stop this from happening in the future. Now Zuckerberg did say he isn’t opposed to legislation as long as it’s the “right” legislation. But he didn’t explain what that looks like. And again, nobody called him on it.
Finally, Facebook is working with Robert Muller who is investigating Russian election meddling among other things. Though Zuckerberg kind of bungled the answer to that question when he was asked about it leaving yous truly wondering if he truly knew what was going on in his own company. It also highlights that public speaking isn’t his strength. But we knew that going in.
Here’s the bottom line. Mark Zuckerberg survived day one of the public flogging known as a congressional hearing. He did okay. Better than I expected in fact. But I think the real test comes today Facing congressmen rather than Senators. The average age of Congressmen is lower, which means they’re more likely to be tech savvy. Thus today’s session might be more interesting to watch. And you should tune in if you can as it may be must see TV.