Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., on Sunday hinted at the prospect of more stringent regulations governing the way technology companies collect and deploy their users’ data ahead of Facebook CEO’s Mark Zuckerberg appearance before multiple congressional panels starting Tuesday.
“I think we’re going to have to start having some rules of the road for all these companies in place,” Klobuchar said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Kasie DC.”
Klobuchar, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee — one of the panels will have the opportunity to hear from Zuckerberg — said a bipartisan approach is needed to best prepare the U.S. against Russian interference in future elections, despite concerns technology companies may favor a Republican-controlled Congress because of the perception it would be less likely to introduce such regulations.
“You want to have a democracy that works. You don’t want to have Russia influencing who our candidates are,” she said. “What I know is this should not be a partisan issue. It just can’t be.”
Klobuchar warned that Zuckerberg’s testimony is “really the beginning,” adding congressional investigators hope to speak to the CEOs of Google and Twitter as well.
She said the burning question she had for Zuckerberg is, “How do you fix this?”
“It’s not just dwelling on the past, but how they are going to fix it moving forward,” Klobuchar said.
What is @amyklobuchar‘s top question she wants to ask Mark Zuckerberg?
Her response: pic.twitter.com/ILcRlqQFDT
— Kasie DC (@KasieDC) April 8, 2018
Zuckerberg agreed to the hearings after it was revealed the social media platform improperly shared personal information regarding tens of millions of Facebook users to political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked with the Trump campaign.
