ZCZC
BFF-03
US-IT-POLITICS-FACEBOOK
Zuckerberg meets Trump, senators; nixes breaking up Facebook
WASHINGTON, Sept 20, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Facebook chief executive Mark
Zuckerberg met Thursday with US President Donald Trump and members of
Congress on a political reconnaissance mission to Washington, where he
rejected calls to break up the world’s biggest social network.
Zuckerberg’s visit comes as Facebook faces a myriad of regulatory and legal
questions surrounding issues like competition, digital privacy, censorship
and transparency in political advertising.
A Facebook spokesman said discussions were focusing in part on future
internet regulation.
Senate Democrat Mark Warner, one of the lawmakers who has taken the lead in
Washington on digital security, signalled they gave Zuckerberg an earful.
The visit, including a Wednesday night private dinner with Warner and other
lawmakers, comes after his stormy appearance last year before Congress, where
he was grilled on Facebook’s data protection and privacy missteps.
Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican freshman and one of the more outspoken
critics of Facebook, said he had a “frank conversation” with Zuckerberg but
remains concerned.
“Challenged him to do two things to show FB is serious about bias, privacy
& competition. 1) Sell WhatsApp & Instagram 2) Submit to independent, third-
party audit on censorship,” Hawley tweeted.
“He said no to both.”
Trump late Thursday posted a picture on Facebook and Twitter showing him
shaking hands with Zuckerberg, but didn’t share details of their
conversation.
“Nice meeting with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook in the Oval Office today,”
the president wrote.
Federal and state anti-trust enforcers are looking into potential anti-
competitive actions by Facebook, and members of Congress are debating
national privacy legislation.
The messaging product WhatsApp and picture-sharing giant Instagram are part
of Facebook’s broad family of services that has made it a global online
behemoth, but have also exposed the company to concerns about competition,
data harvesting and sprawling digital control.
Warner said he was not prepared to call for Facebook’s dismantlement.
“I’m not yet with some of my friends who want to go straight to break up,”
he told Fox Business Network.
“I am concerned. These are global companies, and I don’t want to transfer
the leadership to Chinese companies,” he added.
“But I do think we need a lot more transparency. We need to have privacy
rights protected. We need to increase competition with things like data
portability and interoperability.”
Two months ago, the US Federal Trade Commission hit Facebook with a record
$5 billion fine for data protection violations in a wide-ranging settlement
that calls for revamping privacy controls and oversight at the social
network.
Earlier Wednesday, executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter appeared
before a Senate panel to answer questions on “digital responsibility” in the
face of online violence and extremism.
BSS/AFP/ARS/0933 hrs