Josh Hawley grills Facebook CEO about tool allegedly used to track users ‘across the internet’

“Centra is a tool that Facebook uses to track its users, not just on Facebook but across the entire internet. Centra tracks different profiles that a user visits, their message recipients, their linked accounts, the pages they visit around the web that have Facebook buttons,” Hawley said, showing a screenshot image of the Centra platform. “Centra also uses behavioral data to monitor users’ accounts, even if those accounts are registered under a different name.”

The senator asked Zuckerberg how many accounts have been “subject to review” and “shut down” through Centra. Zuckerberg said he wasn’t aware of the name of the company’s tool.

“Do you have a tool that does exactly what I’ve described and that you can see here over my shoulder? Or are you saying that that doesn’t exist?” Hawley pressed.

“Senator, I’m saying that I’m not familiar with it. And that I’d be happy to follow up, and get you and your team the information that you would like on this. But I’m limited in what I can — what I’m familiar with and can share today,” Zuckerberg said.

After his line of questioning, Hawley tweeted, “Zuckerberg admits @Facebook DOES have ‘tools’ to track its users across the internet, across platforms, across accounts – all without user knowledge. I ask how many times this tool has been used domestically against Americans. Zuck won’t say.” He then attached a screenshot of the internal tool.

During the hearing, Hawley claimed the “Tasks” internal platform allows Facebook employees to communicate with one another about their projects, including the tech giant’s “community well-being team,” “integrity team,” and “hate speech engineering team” discussing which users, hashtags, and websites would be banned from being circulated on the site. He displayed a screenshot of the tool.

“What particularly intrigued me is that the platform reflects censorship input from Google and Twitter as well,” Hawley said. “As I understand it, Facebook censorship teams communicate with their counterparts at Twitter and Google and then enter in those company’s suggestions on the Tasks platform so that Facebook can then follow up with them and effectively coordinate their censorship efforts.” The Missouri Republican then asked if Zuckerberg was aware of the internal platform.

“We do coordinate on, and share signals on, security-related topics,” Zuckerberg said, citing terrorism, images of child exploitation, and foreign election interference. However, he said that was “distinct” from content moderation.

Zuckerberg denied that his company coordinates with Twitter and Google on content moderation but said it was “pretty normal” for Facebook employees to communicate with their peers at other companies. The Facebook CEO said he would “follow up” with Hawley on the platform and tool.

“@Facebook whistleblower tells me FB uses its internal project management system, ‘Tasks,’ to coordinate censorship with @Twitter and @Google,” Hawley tweeted after the hearing. “Whistleblower says @Twitter and @Google routinely suggest censorship topics – hashtags, individuals, websites, many of them conservative – and @Facebook logs them for follow-up on Tasks. But Zuck REFUSES under oath to turn over list of @Twitter or @Google mentions on Tasks.”

On Monday, Hawley teased the information dump. “I’ve heard from @Facebook whistleblower who revealed @Facebook and @Google and @Twitter coordinate to censor. Facebook has an internal platform to manage it. I’ll be asking Mark Zuckerberg and @jack about this at tomorrow’s hearing,” he tweeted.