Hearings of Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday lasted six hours and supposed to be over Libra currency, but very soon they converted into a broad indictment of Facebook.
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Maxine Waters, the committee chairwoman said at the beginning of the hearings that she has studied numerous difficulties that the corporation has and thinks that it should give a resolution to these points before starting the work on Libra project. Waters also mentioned that some lawmakers have called for a moratorium on the Libra until Congress can judge it.
This short opening speech set an adversarial tone to the hearings, and most of the lawmakers used their times for discussing with the CEO of Facebook all the problems and issues that the corporation has. Democratic lawmakers even told that Facebook is a platform for hating various social groups, which failed to protect user data and let Russians interfere into elections.
Nydia Velazquez, a Democrat from New York, said: “We don’t want to break global monetary system, Mr Zuckerberg”.
Facebook has chosen a rocky way. Regulators worry that the currency can be adopted for terroristic aims and money laundering. Representatives of several countries suppose that Libra can be used to skirt laws and form a rival coin to national currencies.
Zuckerberg defended the project, saying that it is targeted to become a currency which is going to ease the lives of millions of people from every corner of the world. He made remarks before hearings, where he mentioned that nowadays financial systems are taking too much time and charges, and the US should be innovative by letting Libra become the most convenient way of transferring funds.
Zuckerberg declared he just wants to improve peoples’ life. The CEO of the giant social media has also shown a self-awareness about controversies of Facebook:
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“I consider this is something that necessitates getting made, but I realise we're not the perfect messenger right now. We've handled a lot of problems over the past few years, and I'm assured people wish it was anyone but Facebook putting this concept forward”.