Last month, Klobuchar called on Chairman Grassley to hold a hearing at which Senators could publicly question the CEOs of technology companies
Facebook recently announced its support for Klobuchar’s bipartisan Honest Ads Act; at the hearing, Zuckerberg committed to working with Klobuchar and cosponsors McCain and Warner to pass the bill
Earlier today, Twitter also announced its support for the Honest Ads Act
WASHINGTON- U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) questioned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at today’s joint hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Facebook and social media data privacy issues. In the hearing, Zuckerberg committed to work with Klobuchar to pass her bipartisan Honest Ads Act with Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Mark Warner (D-VA) which would prevent foreign actors from influencing our elections by ensuring that political ads sold online are covered by the same rules as ads sold on TV, radio, and satellite. Klobuchar also asked Zuckerberg about the Cambridge Analytica data breach, the possibility of Russia storing improperly obtained data, and a potential rule to notify Facebook users of information breaches within 72 hours.
“I think we all agree what happened here is bad. You acknowledged it was a breach of trust and the way I explain it to my constituents is, if someone breaks into my apartment with a crowbar and they take my stuff, it's like if the manager gave them the keys or if they didn't have any locks on the doors. It’s still a breach. It’s still a break-in. I believe we need to have laws and rules that are as sophisticated as the brilliant products that you've developed here. We just haven't done that yet,” Klobuchar said in the hearing.
Last month, Klobuchar and Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) called on Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to hold a hearing at which Senators could publicly question the CEOs of technology companies. They sent a bipartisan letter following reports that Cambridge Analytica misused the data of 50 million Facebook users. Even before the breach, Klobuchar and Kennedy began calls for the technology companies to come before the Judiciary Committee.
Last week, Facebook announced its support of the Honest Ads Act and stated that they will voluntarily implement the bill’s transparency requirements for issue advertisements on their site. Earlier today, Twitter announced that it will also support the bill and will take steps toward increased transparency of political and issue ads.
Follow this link to download video of Senator Klobuchar questioning Mark Zuckerberg at today’s hearing: KLOB_QA_COMMERCE_041018.mp4
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