Mark Zuckerberg testimony to House Commerce Committee -- as it happened
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced another day of grilling Wednesday on Capitol Hill. He told a House oversight panel that he believes it is "inevitable" there will be regulation of the social media industry and also disclosed to lawmakers that his own data was included in the personal information sold to malicious third parties.
"The internet is growing in importance around the world in people's lives and I think that it is inevitable that there will need to be some regulation," Zuckerberg said during testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "So my position is not that there should be no regulation but I also think that you have to be careful about regulation you put in place."
The testimony Wednesday came after Zuckerberg slogged through more than five hours of questioning Tuesday in front of senators, deflecting numerous questions for follow-up by his team at a later date. Lawmakers did land a few uncomfortable punches, however. Zuckerberg, flanked by two senior Facebook policy officers, was forced to admit employees were working with the Mueller investigation into Russian meddling, and also that he did not know about terms and conditions that put Facebook on notice that millions of users' data would be sold.
The 54-member House committee continued its line of questioning Wednesday on Facebook's treatment of user data in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Follow updates from Zuckerberg's testimony below:
Diamond and Silk? Facemash? Mr. Zuckerman?
3:45 p.m.: For a hearing about data privacy, democracy and possible government regulation, there were some strange turns as Zuckerberg faced a second day of congressional grilling.
Mr. Zuckerman, to be sure, does not exist, although Rep. Yvette Clarke did thank him for showing up.
Facemash was, as the Harvard Crimson put it back in the day, a "short-lived but popular website in the realm of "Am I Hot Or Not." Created by Zuckerberg in 2003, it let people judge classmates' looks. At Wednesday's hearing, Zuckerberg called it a "prank" site and tried to suppress a smile when asked about it by Rep. Billy Long, a Republican of Missouri. Long asked what Facemash is and whether it is still up.
As for Diamond and Silk, the Trump-supporting video personalities had their page removed by Facebook, leading to outcries of censorship, including from several congressmen. Zuckerberg said this was an "enforcement error" and the page would be reinstated. He was asked about them on Wednesday.
"It gets to the core of something that lawmakers kept getting at, which is whether Facebook has an inherent political bias, correct?" CBSN's Tanya Rivero asked a panel Wednesday after the hearing concluded.
"Right, and whether or not they had the authority to be censoring content," said Roger Cheng, executive editor for CNET News.
Analysis: House tougher audience than Senate
3:20 p.m.: CBSN anchor Tanya Rivero said the House was a tougher audience for Zuckerberg than the Senate.
"They pushed Mr. Zuckerberg, and they pushed him on issues that didn't necessarily have to do with data gathering, data monitoring, but on a plethora of issues," said Dan Patterson, senior writer for TechRepublic.
Jennifer Grygiel, assistant professor at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications, said she agrees with analysis that the representatives seemed to have a better grasp on the internet in general, and how social media works.
"And they also had the benefit of listening to the testimony yesterday," she said.
"I'd also like to note that we are here today because of Cambridge Analytical and data and privacy, but we just heard for two days a whole host of issues and problems with Facebook stemming from content moderation, diversity issues, fake news, potential bias."
"I think we have a long list of potential regulation coming for social media," she said.
Second day of grilling concludes
2:59 p.m.: Zuckerberg has completed his testimony before the House committee, finishing two days of congressional testimony about how his company protects -- and does not protect -- people's private information.
Zuckerberg spent roughly 10 of the past 24.5 hours testifying, beginning on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he often returned to the same talking points, but did drop some new tidbits such as his disclosure that his own data was swept up in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Facebook investors, at least, seemed satisfied, bumping up the company's shares for the second day in a row. Zuckerberg saw his Facebook stake add about $4 billion during the time he testified -- amounting to a payment of about $400 million per hour.
On GDPR
2:50 p.m.: Rep. Ryan Costello, R-Pa., asked Zuckerberg what pieces of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) he feels would be "properly placed in American jurisprudence?"
Zuckerberg said he agrees with controls and that people should have the ability to know what a company knows about them and delete it whenever they want.
Zuckerberg on "bad actors"
2:25 p.m.: Zuckerberg said it would be difficult for the company to guarantee there are no "bad actors" when it comes to apps on the platform.
Hearing resumes
1:58 p.m.: The hearing has resumed following a brief break.
Does Facebook give advertisers access to users' data?
1:40 p.m.: "We allow them to reach people, but we are not giving them access to the data," Zuckerberg says.
Is Facebook listening to you?
1:29 p.m.: "We are not collecting any information verbally on the [cellphone] microphone and we don't have any contracts with anyone else who is," Zuckerberg says.
Facebook stock continues to rise
1:13 p.m.: Facebook stock continues to rise as CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies to Congress about the company's data privacy scandal.
Facebook rose 0.7 percent to $166.23 as Zuckerberg testified for a second day. Facebook surged during the first part of his testimony Tuesday afternoon and finished the day with a gain of 4.5 percent, its biggest in almost two years.
Daniel Ives, head of technology research for GBH Insights, said there are two reasons for Facebook's rally. One is that Zuckerberg has done well in his testimony, something investors weren't sure would happen. The other is that Wall Street feels many members of Congress haven't been very tough on Facebook, so they're not worrying as much that they are going to crack down on it and other technology companies."
A lot of the regulators and politicians don't really understand Facebook and its (business) model, so how can you expect that regulation is going to be a near-term issue?" he said. "The political theater and grandstanding has actually worked to the benefit of Facebook and Zuckerberg rather than to its detriment."
The stock is still down about 10 percent since the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal broke in mid-March. Other social media companies have also rallied rose. Snap, the parent of Snapchat, rose 2.4 percent, to $14.83. Twitter slipped 1.2 percent to $29.17 after a 5.4 percent jump Tuesday.
Rep. Kathy Castor asks about personal info
12:50 p.m.: Rep. Kathy Castor asked: You are collecting personal information on people who do not even have Facebook accounts, isn't that right?
"Congresswoman, I don't think that that's what we are tracking," Zuckerberg said.
Emphasis on need for AI tools
12:30 a.m.: Zuckerberg has noted several times the need for building new AI tools to help the company monitor content, including fake accounts.
"The sheer volume of content on Facebook makes it so that no amount of people we can hire will be enough to review all of the content," he said.
"A core misunderstanding"
12:2o p.m.: "We don't sell data to advertisers," Zuckerberg said. "Advertisers don't get access to your data. There is a core misunderstanding about how that system works."
Users are being told if data was taken, Zuckerberg says
11: 30 a.m.: Users whose personal information was obtained by data-mining firm tied to President Trump's 2016 campaign are being informed, starting this week, Zuckerberg said.
He told a lawmaker he believes the notices about Cambridge Analytica's possession of their information began going out Monday. It's unclear how many of the 87 million affected users have received notices.
Zuckerberg didn't elaborate because he was being pressed to keep his answers as brief as possible by Rep. Anna Eshoo, the Democrat from Silicon Valley who was questioning him.
Facebook has set up a page where any Facebook user can check to see if Cambridge Analytica vacuumed up any of their information.
Regulation is "inevitable"
10:50 a.m.: Zuckerberg said he believes it is "inevitable" that there will be regulation of his industry.
Lawmakers in both parties have floated possible regulation of Facebook and other social media companies amid privacy scandals and Russian intervention on the platform. It's not clear what that regulation would look like.
Zuckerberg said at the House hearing it is "inevitable that there will be some sort of regulation." But he warned that lawmakers should be careful in what they propose.
He noted that larger companies like Facebook have more resources to comply with regulations than small startups.
Zuckerberg says his personal data sold to others
10:40 a.m.: Mark Zuckerberg said his Facebook data was included in the personal information sold to malicious third parties, a reference to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that has rocked his company over the past several weeks.
Facebook has said that 87 million people's personal data was scooped up when some 270,000 users took a personality quiz and had not just their data, but the data of their friends to be accessed by an outside app. Cambridge Analytica then obtained this data and is said to have used it to try to influence elections around the world.
Zuckberberg was also asked: "Do you think you have a moral responsibility to run a platform that protects our democracy?"
"Yes," he responded.
"Is Facebook a media company?"
10:20 a.m.: Zuckerberg was asked if Facebook is a media company.
"I consider us to be technology company," he said.
He was also asked if Facebook is a financial institution.
"I do not consider ourselves to be a financial institution," he responded.
Zuckerberg gives opening statement
10:12 a.m.: Zuckerberg has started to give his opening statement following remarks by Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, and Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J.
"Across the board we have a responsibility to not just give people tools, but to make sure those tools are used for good," Zuckerberg said in his statement.
Klobuchar on next steps for Zuckerberg
Ahead of his second appearance on Capitol Hill, Sen. Amy Klobuchar told "CBS This Morning" on Wednesday that she expects bipartisan bills to be put forward in the comings days to make social media sites put "rules of the road in place."
"You just can't have Facebook doing one thing, you want to have all of them having some privacy controls as well as breach notifications and other ways a bill of rights for users of these social media company platforms," said Klobuchar.
The senator told CBS that Zuckerberg's four hour-long grilling on Tuesday is "really not an end but a beginning" for the social media site's work on ensuring data privacy for its millions of users.
"What are they really going to do to on their site, is it going to be easy for you as a user to just go in there and click that you want to keep your data private? Or are you going to have to go to 30 spots on the site?" questioned Klobuchar.
What questions is Zuckerberg likely to face?
If yesterday's Senate hearing is anything to go by, some interesting threads remain to pull. Senator Maria Cantwell started to prod at Zuckerberg's understanding, or lack thereof, of the vast space that is commercial data gathering for corporate intelligence.
Zuckerberg's denial that he knew whether or not Palantir had scraped data from Facebook rang hollow. Palantir's founder, Peter Thiel, is not only as big a tech celebrity as Zuckerberg, he is also an early Facebook investor and current board member.
Senator Richard Blumenthal turned to props to demonstrate that Zuckerberg didn't really know what was going on in his own company. He produced the terms and conditions of Aleksandr Kogan's app, which scraped data that was then sold to Cambridge Analytica. That it so brazenly stated that it would allow Kogan sell the data seemed to come as a shock to Zuckerberg.
Those are just two of the areas opened up by the Senate that the House could follow up on to devastating effect.