Mark Zuckerberg is on the hot seat today. The billionaire CEO of Facebook will testify on Capitol Hill about the privacy scandals that have rocked his company, including the theft of data from over 87 million Facebook users by the political research firm Cambridge Analytica.
Photo: Getty
Today’s hearing is titled “Facebook, Social Media Privacy, and the Use and Abuse of Data”, and is scheduled to start at 4:15AM AEDT. The US Senate committee hearing is scheduled to last two hours.
We already know some of what Mark is going to say based on the written testimony he’s submitted, but it should be interesting to see what types of questions are asked. We can probably expect a lot of questions about Cambridge Analytica, Russian meddling in the 2016 US election, and maybe even a few about Zuck’s secret unsend button.
Hopefully we’ll also get some answers about why Facebook didn’t roll out that new privacy page yesterday like it promised. Multiple emails from Gizmodo to Facebook have not been answered.
YouTube
Some of the major US broadcast networks will be streaming Zuckerberg’s Senate testimony for free on YouTube:
- ABC News has a livestream on YouTube.
- PBS Newhour has a livestream on YouTube.
- NBC News has a livestream on YouTube.
And oddly enough, there are some ways to watch Zuckerberg’s testimony today on Facebook, though Facebook itself isn’t offering an official feed from Capitol Hill.
- Gizmodo (that’s us) has a livestream on Facebook.
- C-SPAN 3 has a livestream on Facebook.
- PBS Newshour also has a livestream on Facebook.
Reuters TV
Reuters TV has a number of free options for watching the Facebook testimony on devices such as Apple TV and Roku.
- You can watch Reuters TV on iOS and Android apps.
- And you can also watch Reuters TV on Roku and Fire TV.
Virtual Reality
Do you have a VR headset that you wouldn’t mind whipping out first thing in the morning? Well, you’re in luck. Because AltspaceVR is hosting a livestream that you can watch with your Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive or Oculus Rift.
Photo: Getty
The hearing is scheduled for roughly two hours and senators try to keep a tight schedule just in case members have other things to do during the day. The whole thing should be wrapped up by 6:15AM AEST.
The joint hearing this morning is in front of the US Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees, but it isn’t going to be the Facebook CEO’s last. Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify tomorrow in front of the US House Energy and Commerce committee starting at 12AM AEST.
If photos from Zuck’s pre-meetings with legislators yesterday are any indication, he’s not too happy about any of this. But he’s getting plenty of coaching, including advise from one of George W. Bush’s former advisors. The strategy? Being humble and charming. We’ll see if Zuck can pull it off.