Mark Zuckerberg spoke before a House oversight panel on Wednesday, seeing regulation as “inevitable.”
Mark Zuckerberg spoke to a House oversight panel on the subject of Facebook privacy. He stated that he saw regulation of the social media industry as “inevitable.” He also revealed that his own data was among the personal information sold to malicious third parties through Facebook’s previous privacy loopholes.
Zuckerberg spoke as a part of his testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“The internet is growing in importance around the world in people’s lives and I think that it is inevitable that there will need to be some regulation,” he said. “So my position is not that there should be no regulation but I also think that you have to be careful about regulation you put in place.”
He also pointed out that Facebook privacy regulation may not be as difficult. The reason is that it is a large company with broad resources. However, he added that “that might be more difficult for a smaller startup to comply with.”
Lawmakers from both parties have been open to the idea of Facebook privacy regulation.
They have discussed the type of regulation that may be appropriate for Facebook as well as other tech companies. This has become a particularly popular topic following scandals involving privacy as well as Russian intervention on social media platforms. At this time, it is not entirely clear how regulation would apply. Zuckerberg did not offer any suggestions or details in his testimony.
Wednesday was Zuckerberg’s second day of testimony as he responded to questions from one lawmaker after the next. This was a part of a broader congressional investigation into the worst privacy scandal Facebook has ever experienced.
The Facebook privacy debacle has shaken the company, sending its stock prices into a nose dive. This most recent revelation appeared to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. The company has found itself in one headline after the next regarding its privacy practices. Most recently, it was the privacy failure when Cambridge Analytica – a firm linked with Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 – improperly collected private user data from about 87 million users.