Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress that he “definitely” considers himself a capitalist.
Zuckerberg, 35, was testifying before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday and, after Republican Rep. Roger Williams of Texas spoke about Zuckerberg’s success in founding his company, he was asked directly if he was “a capitalist or a socialist.”
“Congressman, I would definitely consider myself a capitalist,” Zuckerberg said with a smile.
The tech executive fielded a number of questions from lawmakers expressing concerns about a variety of issues, including Facebook’s mishandling of user data, its efforts to combat the spread of extremist content, and its plans for a new cryptocurrency called Libra.
During the public hearing, the chairwoman of the committee, Rep. Maxine Waters, attacked Zuckerberg over his company’s policy of allowing erroneous or misleading content in political ads. Waters said that the policy “gives politicians a license to lie so you can earn more money off this division.”
Zuckerberg told the committee that the reason Facebook doesn’t fact-check ads “is that we believe that in a democracy. It is important that people can see for themselves what politicians are saying.”
Wednesday was the first time Zuckerberg testified before Congress since April 2018.
