Zuckerberg's Congress Hearing Day 2: Here are the times when he got stumped by the senators

Zuckerberg said that his data was also harvested by the British firm Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg testifies during a US House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing about Facebook on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, April 11, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB

New Delhi: The second day of Congressional hearing was not a cake-walk for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who had escaped unscathed after the first round of the hearing. The 33-year-old billionaire was grilled more intensely on the second day of the testimony as he was faced with questions on Facebook’s data practices. The Democrats and Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee posed difficult questions with a yes or no answer and as per the foreign media reports, the questions this time, did frustrate the CEO. Zuckerberg was asked whether his personal data among that of 87 million users, was acquired by the British Firm Cambridge Analytica. He replied with a yes. Following are some instances when Zuckerberg  got perplexed during the hearing When Congresswoman Anna Eshoo grilled him over data privacy: In a clip of the session shared by Recode on its Facebook page, California Democratic Respresentative Anna Eshoo can be seen questioning Mark, “Was your data included in the data sold to the maolicious third parties. Your personal data?” Zuckerberg replied “yes”. “It was. Are you willing to change your business model in the interest of protecting individual privacy? She asks. “Congresswoman we have made and are continuing to make changes to reduce the amount of data..” Zuckerberg was replying when he was interrupted in between by Eshoo, who repeated her question to make it clearer to Zuckerberg, “No, are you willing to change your business modelin the interest of protecting individual privacy?” Zuckerberg said that he did not understand the question. “Congresswoman I am not sure what that means” he said. When Ted Cruz’s questions left him stumped: In another video posted by Citizens Mandate on Twitter, Ted Cruz, senator from Texas, smacked Zuckerberg with questions over censorship and political bias. Citing many examples where Facebook shut down pages of those with conservative ideologies, Cruz said: “To a great many Americans that appears to be pervasive pattern of political bias. Do you agree with that assessment?” Zuckerberg tried explaining the senator that Facebok and other tech industries are located in Silicon Valley which is a left-leaning place and that is why they have to face such allegations. He was saying “This is actually a concern that I have and I try to root out in the company that we don’t have any bias in the work we do and I think it is a fair concern that people would ..”,  when he was interrupted in between by Cruz again. Cruz asked: “Are you aware of any ad or page that has been taken down from Planned Parenthood? Zuckerberg seemed confused and was searching for words, when he was questioned again by Cruz: “How about moveon.org?” Zuckerberg said: “sorry?” Cruz repeated: “how about moveon.org?” Zuckerberg said: “I am not specifically aware of those. Cruz: How about any democratic for office? Zuck: “I’m not specifically aware.. I mean I’m not sure”. His Face-off with New York Representative Paul Tonko: Paul Tonko asked if Facebook should “bear the liability for the misuse of people’s data”, Zuckerberg said that the company takes responsibility but he denied that his company was liable, stating CA was solely at fault. When quizzed about past lawsuits and Zuck said he cannot remember! Diana DeGette Representative of Colorado put up question regarding the previous lawsuits the company has faced. She reportedly listed out several lawsuits Facebook faced and asked if Facebook has been punished financially for its past mistakes. Zuckerberg responded that he could not “remember”. DeGette snapped back by saying that the data abuses and breach keep happening but nothing is apparently done to prevent future mistakes. She then added that “robust penalties” for breaches like Cambridge Analytica could be put in place, even for “first-time violations”. When Zuck was quizzed over hate speech and speech one doesn’t like Richard Hudson Representative, North Carolina, asked Zuckerberg what is the difference between hate speech and speech one doesn’t like. Hudson: “What’s the difference between hate speech and speech we don’t like?” Zuckerberg: “It’s complicated. This is an area where society is shifting”.