Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg to speak at US Congressional hearing

Mark Zuckerberg plans to position his company as a patriotic protector of American interests at a US Congressional hearing.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg plans to position his massive company as a patriot and play on the fear of China when he and other tech head honchos testify in front of US Congress this week.

Mr Zuckerberg will appear along with the heads of Google, Apple and Amazon at hearings that were meant to begin on Tuesday but were postponed to pay respects to Georgia congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, who served his constituents for 23 years before his death from pancreatic cancer earlier in July.

Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook and Jeff Bezos are all scheduled to appear at the hearing. Picture: AFP

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According to Bloomberg, Mr Zuckerberg will argue any attempts to regulate or control the current oligarchs of the internet, all based in the US, will just create space that will be filled by Chinese companies like the under-fire viral video app TikTok.

Mr Zuckerberg has previously argued China can’t be trusted to set the rules of the internet because the country lacks democratic values, a position he took up after years of trying and failing to convince them to let his company’s services operate there.

The main focus of the hearings are antitrust issues driven by fears the companies are now too large and wield out-size power.

Facebook will also be under the microscope for its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, which some believe were bought by Facebook so it wouldn’t have to compete with them.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Digital Platforms Inquiry is one of many reports from around the world that has advanced this theory.

The Facebook co-founder’s talking points will seek to portray the success of those acquisitions as predominantly due to Facebook acquiring them, according to Bloomberg.

Instagram had only just over a dozen employees when Facebook acquired it in 2012, however it was experiencing huge growth before the bigger social media platform absorbed it.

Mark Zuckerberg also faced Congress in October last year over Facebook’s proposed digital currency. Picture: Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg

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Internal documents have been analysed in an attempt to figure out what motivated Facebook to acquire the two platforms.

It will be Mr Zuckerberg’s third time in front of Congress in as many years.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook will also be testifying to Congress, which both have done before.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will be testifying for the first time.