This archive report was first published on 23 October 2019.
Facebook's Cryptocurrency Plans Under Fire ¶
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced a barrage of criticism from lawmakers on Wednesday as he testified before the House Financial Services Committee about the company's cryptocurrency project, Libra.
Lawmakers expressed concerns over the potential risks and consequences of Libra, including its potential to facilitate anonymous transactions and create new threats to national security.
Representative Maxine Waters, the committee chairwoman, grilled Mr. Zuckerberg on Facebook's political ads policy, the company's willingness to allow virtually unfettered speech across the platform, and its shifting positions on how it wished to treat so-called blockchain advertising and technology across its services.
“The impact of this will be a massive voter suppression effort. Your claim to promote freedom of speech does not ring true,” she said.
Ms. Waters also touched on the company's continued problems with foreign election interference, privacy violations, its poor record on workforce diversity, and allegations of housing discrimination from its ads platform.
Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, a Democrat from New York, pointed to Facebook's promise in its acquisition of WhatsApp in 2014 to keep the messaging app separate from the main Facebook platform, but a few years later, Mr. Zuckerberg announced it would merge data between the two apps.
“Do you understand why this record makes us concerned with Facebook entering the cryptocurrency space? Have you learned that you should not lie?” Ms. Velásquez said.
Mr. Zuckerberg was defensive, but ultimately unable to assuage the concerns of lawmakers.
Facebook has faced a torrent of criticism since announcing Libra in June, but Mr. Zuckerberg remains committed to the project, which he believes can help democratize financial systems and provide affordable banking services to millions of Americans without access to traditional banking.
