The world sat in anticipation as Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of Facebook, could potentially be held in contempt of Congress after neglecting to turn over documents in relation to the alleged violations of user data privacy while working closely with Cambridge Analytica.
His testimony before Congress some years ago was a landmark moment as members of the House and Senate interrogated him on the ways in which the company abused its user data, and those same members of Congress vowed to hold him in contempt if he failed to comply with subpoenas related to user privacy. However, this week, Congress backed away from those statements and decided not to proceed with contempt proceedings even after months of acrimony over the production of documents.
So, what changed? It turns out that assurances given by Facebook in the months before the scheduled contempt hearing, as well as some technical issues regarding subpoena compliance, caused the members of the House Energy and Commerce committee to withdraw their motion to hold Zuckerberg in contempt.
In a statement, the committee’s Chairman Greg Walden and ranking member Frank Pallone said that, “As Facebook continues to work cooperatively with the Committee, we have reached an agreement to resolve the outstanding subpoena issues. The Committee will withdraw its referral of this matter to the full House.”
It also appears that Facebook had been quietly working away behind the scenes to appease the committee’s demands, and it seems this hard work paid off with a not insignificant commitment from the company to better protect their users’ information. It is not fully clear what the restrictions for this protection are, however it appears Facebook is taking the safe route to ensure congressional legislators are appeased.
This is a significant victory for Mark Zuckerberg as the ramifications of being held in contempt of Congress could have been damaging for his reputation and that of his company. This incident has definitely put him on notice that Congress will not take the abuse of user data lightly and that the issue of privacy has become an apex priority for legislators.
All in all, it appears the efforts of the Facebook team have paid off in terms of appeasing Congress and allowing Mark Zuckerberg to avoid the potential shame of being held in contempt. This has been demonstrated through Congress withdrawing their motion, and has allowed the company to continue operating as normal in the meantime.
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