Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., pressed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to quickly become familiar with her bill to provide a uniform privacy code that would protect consumers on social media sites, and urged him to support it.
“What we think is, we need for you to look at new legislation. And you’re hearing there will be more bills brought out in the next few weeks, but we have had a bill, the Browser Act,” Blackburn said in a House hearing in which Zuckerberg testified.
“Will you commit to working with us to pass privacy legislation, to pass the Browser Act?” she asked.
When Zuckerberg said he is not “directly familiar” with her bill, Blackburn interrupted and said he should read up on it.
“Let’s get familiar with the details,” she said. “As you have heard, we need some rules and regulations, this is only 13 pages … so you can easily become familiar with it.”
Blackburn’s comments indicate she and other lawmakers will be pushing to pass some kind of bill aimed at boosting privacy protections for consumers. Her specific bill would designate the Federal Trade Commission as the enforcer of a new set of rules that search engines and social media companies would have to follow.
Rep. Leonard Lance, R-N.J., and also used the hearing to ask Zuckerberg to read the Browser Act.
The issue came up at a hearing that was called after Facebook admitted that data on up to 87 million of its users was taken without authorization.
[9 key moments from Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony on Capitol Hill]
The House hearing followed a Senate hearing in which a few senators warned that new legislation or regulation may follow the Facebook breach.
In a conversation with Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., Zuckerberg admitted that new regulations on his company and others is “inevitable.”
