Analysis: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces questions but gives few real answers

ANALYSIS: Facebook’s founder has faced a series of tough questions in US Congress but it was an unexpected enquiry that penetrated his steely facade.

HE ditched the hoodie and jeans for a suit and tie.

He put on a stern, often emotionless face while probed by cameras.

And he sat up straight, like a prefect called before the school principal.

Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg fronted the first of two US Congressional committees early this morning, facing questions from 44 Senators and scrutiny from a worldwide audience tuning into live video from the event.

But if you were looking for something new, for some hint that Facebook is going to look and operate differently following the biggest scandal in its 14-year history, you would have been disappointed.

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Mark Zuckerberg was grilled before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee. Picture: AFP

Zuckerberg didn’t just invest in a sharp suit. He clearly spent days rehearsing for this appearance, memorising potential answers, even cramming miniature soliloquies with dot points, numbered and categorised.

Some Senators, all on five-minute time limits, clearly became frustrated with the robotic, highly rehearsed, polished, and legally vetted comments from the world’s sixth richest man.

Zuckerberg referred the most difficult issues back to “my team,” and regularly appeared to snap to attention when a rehearsed answer came to mind, dropping phrases like “proactive role,” “broad view,” “connect people,” “in general,” and “dorm room”.

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Senator Dick Durbin put Zuckerberg off his well rehearsed answers. Picture: AP

But there were was one question that momentarily broke Zuckerberg’s steely mask.

Senator Dick Durbin cut to the heart of Facebook’s problem by asking for Zuckerberg’s personal information.

The exchange, which brought an awkward smile to Zuckerberg’s face, went down as follows:

Durbin: Mr Zuckerberg, would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?

Zuckerberg: Uh, no.

Durbin: If you messaged anybody this week would you share with us the names of the people you messaged?

Zuckerberg: Senator, no, I would probably not choose to do that publicly here.

Durbin: I think that may be what this is all about.

During his testimony, Zuckerberg regularly conceded the company and he personally had “made mistakes,” in what one Senator called an extension of his personal “apology tour”.

But, for those playing close attention, there were a handful of new specifics that slipped from his mouth.

In relation to Cambridge Analytica — the company that bought information stripped from the accounts of 87 million users and employed it to influence elections — Zuckerberg admitted he had not seen the suspect app’s terms of service that included a proviso to sell the information it collected.

It’s kind of an important point when you’re publicly claiming the app-maker lied to you.

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Reporters sit shoulder-to-shoulder behind Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg as he testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee. Picture: AFP

Zuckerberg also revealed Facebook took Cambridge Analytica at its word when it said, in 2015, that it deleted the information, failed to check whether it had indeed destroyed the data, and “we considered it a closed case”.

In a surprise admission, Zuckerberg also revealed Facebook had been working with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election — perhaps another a reason President Donald Trump prefers Twitter.

At one point, Zuckerberg even agreed to have his “team” draft new privacy laws that would apply to Facebook, and submit them to US senators for approval. Cynical bystanders could suspect Facebook’s privacy rules would be quite generous.

And the 33-year-old CEO also addressed a proposal kicking around the internet this week: the idea that Facebook users could pay to retain their privacy.

Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg inspired the idea when she told American TV show that opting out of Facebook ads “would be a paid product”.

Two Senators asked direct questions about whether Facebook would launch a premium service, but Zuckerberg didn’t confirm plans, only saying that lost advertising revenue would have to be replaced somehow.

“I think what Sheryl (Sandberg) was saying is that in order to not run ads at all we would still need some sort of business model,” he said.

And that’s what at the heart of the hearing, of the scandal, of the problem with Facebook. The social network makes billions of dollars from users’ personal information.

It cannot operate without your likes, dislikes, age, gender, friends list, and preferences because it trades on that information, using it to sell advertisements and push posts to highly targeted audiences.

Perhaps the most telling moment in this congressional hearing didn’t come from Zuckerberg at all, but from Democrat Senator Bill Nelson in its opening moments.

Senator Bill Nelson produced one of the hearing’s most memorable comments. Picture: AP

“If you and other social media companies do not get your act in order,” he announced, “none of us are going to have privacy any more.”

Sadly, there’s plenty of evidence that Facebook users have little privacy left.

Originally published as Analysis: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces questions but gives few real answers