- Title: Facebook's Zuckerberg grilled by Ocasio-Cortez
- Date: 23rd October 2019
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 23, 2019) (UNRESTRICTED POOL) WIDE OF CONGRESSIONAL HEARING (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "Mr. Zuckerberg, what year and month did you personally first become aware of Cambridge Analytica? (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "I'm not I'm not sure of the exact time, but it was probably around the time when it became public. I think it was around March of 2018, I could be wrong though." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "When did Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg become aware of Cambridge Analytica? (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: I don't know off the top of my head. I don't know." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG- OFF CAMERA: "Did anyone on your leadership team know about Cambridge Analytica prior to the initial report by The Guardian on December 11th, 2015? (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "Congresswoman, I, I believe so and that some folks were were tracking it internally, and I'm actually as you're asking this, I, I do think I was aware of Cambridge Analytica as an entity earlier, I just I don't know if I was tracking how they were using Facebook specifically." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "When was the issue discussed with your board member, Peter Teal? (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "Congresswoman, I don't I don't know that." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "You don't know? This was the largest data scandal with respect to your company that had catastrophic impacts on the 2016 election. You don't you don't know? (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "Well, Congresswoman, I'm sure we discussed it after it, after we were we're aware of what happened." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "You announced recently that the official policy of Facebook now allows politicians to pay to spread disinformation in 2020 elections and in the future. So I just want to know how far I can push this. I'm in the next year under your policy, you know, using census data as well. Could I pay to target predominantly black zip codes and advertise them the incorrect election date?" (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "No, Congresswoman, you couldn't. We have, even for these policies around the newsworthiness of content that politicians say in the general principle that I believe that..." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "But you said you're not going to fact check my ads. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "If if anyone, including a politician, is saying things that can cause that is calling for violence or could risk imminent physical harm or voter or census suppression, when we roll out the census suppression policy, we will take that content down." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "So so you will, there is some threshold where you will fact check political advertisements... Is that where you're telling me?" (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "Well, Congresswoman, yes, for specific things like that, where there's imminent risk of harm, (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "Could I run ads targeting Republicans in primaries saying that they voted for the Green New Deal?" (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "Sorry, can you repeat that?" (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "Would I be able to run advertisements on Facebook targeting Republicans and primaries saying that they voted for the Green New Deal?" I mean, if you're not fact checking political advertisements, I'm just trying to understand the bounds here. What's fair game? " (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "You don't know if I'll be able to do that?" Do you see a potential problem here with a complete lack of fact checking on political advertisements?" (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "Well, Congresswoman, I think lying is bad, and I think if you were to run an ad that had a lie, that would be bad. That's different from it being from it... from in our position. The right thing to do to prevent your constituents or people in an election from seeing that you had lied." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "So we can, so you won't take down lies or you will take down lies? I think that's just a pretty simple yes or no... I'm not talking about spin. I'm talking about actual disinformation." (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "Congresswoman, yes, in most cases, in a democracy, I believe that people should be able to see for themselves what politicians that they may or may not vote for are saying." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "So you won't take them down? You may flag that it's wrong, but you won't take it down?" (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "Congresswoman, it's, it depends on the context that it shows up... Organic posts, ads." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "One more question, in your ongoing dinner parties with far right figures, some of whom advanced the conspiracy theory that white supremacy is a hoax. Did you discuss so-called social media bias against conservatives and do you believe there is a bias? (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "Congresswoman, sorry, I don't remember everything that was in the question." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "That's all right, I'll move on. Can you explain why you've named The Daily Caller a publication well well-documented with ties to white supremacists as an official fact checker for Facebook?" (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "Congresswoman sure. We actually don't appoint the independent fact checkers, they go through an independent organization called the Independent Fact Checking Network that has a rigorous standard for who they allow to serve as a fact checker." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ- CONGRESSWOMAN FROM NEW YORK ASKING FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG: "So you would say that white supremacists tied publications meet a rigorous standard for a fact checking?" (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARK ZUCKERBERG- FACEBOOK CEO SAYING: "Congresswoman, I would say that we're not the one assessing that that standard. The international fact checking network is the one who is setting that standard." ZUCKERBERG DRINKS FROM B OTTLE OF WATER
- Embargoed: 6th November 2019 20:50
- Keywords: mark Zuckerberg Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Facebook
- Location: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- City: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Budget/Taxation/Revenue,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA001B2BL1ZB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike blasted Facebook CEO mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday (October 23) for failing to crack down on online child exploitation and political misinformation, and for data privacy lapses. Several said they did not trust Facebook to help provide financial services to its 2.4 billion users given the past scandals.
Zuckerberg fended off aggressive questions on election interference, free speech, hate groups and fake news from members of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chided Zuckerberg on Facebook's policy of allowing political ads containing false or misleading information. - Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
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