Facebook chief calls in coaches for twin congressional hearings

Mark Zuckerberg is being coached to make him sound honest and trustworthy as he prepares for a grilling on Capitol Hill.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Picture: AFP

Facebook chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg is being given intensive coaching to make him sound honest and trustworthy as he prepares for his grilling on Capitol Hill ­tomorrow about the scandals that have rocked his company.

The 33-year-old will face the most difficult moment of his ­career when he fronts two US congressional committees over a raft of controversies from political interference to the failure of the social network to protect the data of its users.

He has left nothing to chance in his preparations for his ­appearance in Washington amid fears that Facebook’s reputation will be hit further if he performs poorly during his testimony on tomorrow and Thursday. The ­future of Mr Zuckerberg himself will come under intense scrutiny if he cannot satisfy congressional members of his commitment to protect the social network from further misuse and abuse.

He has hired teams of lawyers and outside consultants to ­assume the role of members of congress to fire questions at him in mock hearings to ensure he is fully prepared for the hostile reception he is expected to receive.

The preparations include ­advice on how to pace his ­answers and how to react if he is interrupted. The move is part of a Mr Nice Guy public relations ­effort to make him appear likeable, trustworthy and forthright during the hearings.

Despite his massive success with Facebook, the billionaire has avoided confrontational testimony in the past, having refused previous invitations to testify before congress. But faced with the massive data security breach by analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, Mr Zuckerberg has agreed to testify before the Senate commerce and judiciary committee tomorrow and the House energy and commerce committee the following day.

His performance will be one of the most important moments in the 14-year history of Facebook and could prove a watershed moment in the way hi-tech companies are treated by the US government.

Congress has been angered by the rolling series of controversies that have hit Facebook over the past 18 months. The latest was the disclosure last week that the data of as many as 87 million Facebook users — including 311,129 Australians — may have been improperly obtained by the Donald Trump-linked voter data firm Cambridge Analytica compared with the previous estimate of 50 million. Facebook also admitted last week that a vulnerability in its search and ­account recovery functions could have exposed “most” of its two billion users to having their public profile information harvested.

Last year Facebook was ­accused of failing to prevent the spread of disinformation and ­violent imagery, of political bias against conservative causes, of distorting news and advertising and of allowing Russian intelligence to exploit its sites to interfere with the 2016 US presidential election. Faced with these scandals, the secretive Facebook has belatedly tried to modify its image to portray itself as open and transparent about the way users’ data is treated.

At the weekend Facebook announced the latest is a series of reforms it claims will make the social network more accountable. It would force people who want to buy political or “issue” advertisements to reveal their identities and verify their locations. Facebook has been ­accused to taking a cavalier attitude to the privacy of the data of its users and of being secretive about the way in which it makes this data available to advertisers and to third parties.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia.