Zuckerberg To Visit DC To Discuss Internet Regulations

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify on Capitol Hill once again.

Zuckerberg is scheduled “to meet with policymakers and talk about future internet regulation” on Thursday (Sept. 19). A spokesperson for Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington confirmed she met with Zuckerberg on Wednesday evening, according to CNBC.

This will be the first time Zuckerberg will be questioned on Capitol Hill since April, when he was grilled for two days over his company’s involvement in the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The social media giant has also been under scrutiny via multiple antitrust investigations. In July, it was announced that Facebook had reached a $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over privacy violations.

Shortly thereafter, the agency launched another probe into the company’s competition tactics. In addition, state attorneys general led by Texas and New York are separately launching official antitrust investigations into Facebook, as well as Google.

And attorneys general from 39 states, as well as Puerto Rico, Guam and the District of Columbia, have all signed a letter to the FTC asking it to look at a large range of factors when it comes to how Big Tech is harming consumers.

“We continue to engage in bipartisan conversations about the unchecked power of large tech companies,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said earlier this month. “The attorneys general involved have concerns over the control of personal data by large tech companies and will hold them accountable for anticompetitive practices that endanger privacy and consumer data.”

U.S. lawmakers aren’t the only ones that want to speak with Zuckerberg. Last year, British politician Damian Collins blasted the CEO for sending a senior executive in his place to speak in front of an international body of lawmakers to testify about how the company protects user data of its users around the world.