By George Biggs
Outspoken Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) grilled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over Cambridge Analytica, Facebook’s factchecking policies and his personal connections to members of the far-right.
The hearing took place before the US House of Representatives financial services committee, where several lawmakers inquired about Facebook’s new cryptocurrency, Libra.
AOC began her line of questioning with a clear reference to Zuckerberg’s previous scandals, involving the misuse of the data of Facebook users: “you of all people can appreciate using a person’s past behavior in order to determine, predict or make decisions about future behavior”.
AOC’s strategy was to encourage Zuckerberg to apply Facebook policy to a string of hypotheticals. She asked the CEO if she could “pay to target predominantly black zip codes and advertise to them the incorrect election date?”, or if she could run ads that lied about what legislation republicans voted for. Zuckerberg assured her that any form of voter suppression would not be tolerated by Facebook, nor would any threat of violence in these ads.
However, he continued to avoid mentioning Facebook’s problematic factchecking policy itself. The policy essentially exempts political ads from fact checking, implying that Facebook overtly permits the circulation of misleading information. AOC struggled to get a definitive answer from Zuckerberg, who soon became flustered by her rapid questioning:
“So, you won’t take down lies or you will take down lies? I think that’s just a pretty simple yes or no.”
But Zuckerberg offered neither and AOC’s began to lose her patience. She asked a couple rambling, confusing questions about the CEO’s personal connections to far-right, white supremacist-deniers. She then voice criticism about The Daily Caller, a fact-checking organization also tied to white supremacy that’s supported by Facebook.
Even if AOC had given him the chance to answer, it’s likely it would’ve been as rambling and noncommittal as the rest of the hearing.
