Zuckerberg faces tougher questions at House hearing

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ByDavid Louie KGO logo
Thursday, April 12, 2018
VIDEOS: Zuckerberg faces tougher questions at House hearing
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrapped up two days of testimony before joint committees in the Senate and the House of Representatives. It appears the members of the House panel were tougher on Zuckerberg, interrupting him often.

WASHINGTON (KGO) -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrapped up two days of testimony before joint committees in the Senate and the House of Representatives. It appears the members of the House panel were tougher on Zuckerberg, interrupting him often as he failed to deliver the simple yes or no answers that they were seeking, given the four minute limit for each representative.

Communications professor Dr. Nolan Higdon at Cal State East Bay said, "They tried to show themselves off as asking tough questions, but there seemed to be very little care for answers."

VIDEO: What happens when a user deletes their Facebook page?

What really happens when you delete your Facebook account? CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed that during his second day of testimony on Capitol Hill.

A new public opinion survey after Tuesday's Senate hearing indicated 66 percent of the 1,000 people questioned like Facebook, but 55 percent don't trust the social network. The survey was conducted by Propeller Insights for Bospar in San Francisco, a boutique public relations firm that represents high tech companies. Facebook is not a Bospar client.

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Bospar principal Curtis Sparrer says Zuckerberg, in his opinion, must stop apologizing and start working to rebuild users' trust in Facebook. It was Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo of Palo Alto who asked Zuckerberg if his own information had been compromised in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Zuckerberg acknowledged that he was a victim, along with tens of millions of others. "I think he could have come across and been more forthcoming about that and explain how he, too, felt a bit exposed because of this," said Sparrer.

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Zuckerberg started his testimony with a prepared statement that was largely if not completely identical to his opening remarks to the Senate panel on Tuesday in which he took responsibility for the data breach and apologized.

The House members on Wednesday explored a number of issues with the 33-year-old CEO, criticizing him for a lack of diversity in Facebook's top management team and asking if an agency should be created or laws passed to make tech companies address the need for privacy, even though protecting user data may hurt profits. Zuckerberg said, "I think it's an idea that deserves a lot of consideration. I'm not the type of person who thinks there should be no regulation, especially because the internet is getting to be so important in peoples' lives around the world. But I think the details on this really matter."

David Louie have highlights of Zuckerberg's second day of Capitol Hill testimony on ABC7 News at 4, 5 and 6 p.m. Click here to follow him on Twitter.

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