Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said Tuesday he’s hoping to keep today’s hearing with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg focused on data privacy, and not on how Russia used Facebook to meddle in the election.
“I hope we don’t get down in the weeds about the election, because this is more about privacy and all the data that this company collects about people, and the protection of that data, and the protection of privacy,” he said. “That ought to be our main focus.”
Despite his hope, Republicans and Democrats are likely to pursue different questions at today’s joint Senate committee hearing. While both are likely to press Zuckerberg on his company’s failure to protect the data of 87 million users, Democrats are also expected to press him on his failure to prevent Russia from using Facebook as a tool to influence the 2016 election.
Grassley downplayed that aspect of the hearing, however, by saying President Obama’s campaign used the social media site similarly.
“They bragged about similar access to this information for the 2012 re-election of Obama,” he said. Grassley also downplayed the idea that the latest data breach was aimed at helping President Trump.
“And then don’t forget, Cambridge Analytica tapped into Facebook and got this information probably a year before there was even a Trump candidacy,” he said.
.@ChuckGrassley: “[Cambridge Analytica] tapped into Facebook and got this information probably a year before there was even a Trump candidacy.” pic.twitter.com/x98fCGhi5H
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 10, 2018
