Tech | popsci

Let's watch Mark Zuckerberg testify in front of Congress

By now, you're all brushed up on the Facebook news. You've read our story about how we got to the point where Mark Zuckerberg needs to testify in front of Congress. You've checked your own account to see if Cambridge Analytica got your data. You contemplated deleting Facebook completely . Now, it's time to see what Zuck has to say. You can watch the stream of the video above or check out the official page for the committee here .

You can read the pre-released statement Zuckerberg will deliver here before he says it out loud.

2:35 pm: We're getting started with comments from Science and Transportation Committee chair, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. He's laying out the details of the issue as well as a top-level analysis of why people feel victimized by this scandal. "I'm not convinced that Facebook's users have the information they need to make meaningful choices."

2:40 pm Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein now providing commentary. She's focusing on the Russian Internet Research Agency issue, which Thune mostly avoided.

2:45 pm Senator Chuck Grassley now making his points to Zuckerberg. Almost everyone is explicitly reminding Zuck of how many users the service has. Grassley is calling out specific revenue numbers. Now, he called out other tech companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon. Nice reminder of the possible scope of this thing. Grassley seems to steer clear of Russia as well, but he did mention the Obama campaign from 2012.

2:50 pm Senator Bill Nelson evoking the 2012 FTC mandate regarding Facebook's responsibility regarding user data. The Facebook livestream comments are getting antsy and want to hear Zuckerberg speak. Hard to argue with that sentiment. He flat out threatened Congressional regulation if Facebook and other tech companies can't figure out this privacy puzzle.

2:55 pm Zuck speaks! "Facebook is an idealistic and optimistic company."

"I started Facebook. I run it and I'm responsible for what happens here."