Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the Senate, one day before he also appears before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Zuckerberg will appear before the Senate Judiciary and the Senate Commerce Committee on April 10.
According to Tech Crunch, the hearing is titled, “Facebook, Social Media Privacy, and the Use and Abuse of Data,” and will take place at 2:15 p.m. ET.
In a statement, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) declared, “Facebook now plays a critical role in many social relationships, informing Americans about current events, and pitching everything from products to political candidates.”
“Our joint hearing will be a public conversation with the CEO of this powerful and influential company about his vision for addressing problems that have generated significant concern about Facebook’s role in our democracy, bad actors using the platform, and user privacy,” he explained.
On April 11th, Zuckerberg will also appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee “regarding the company’s use and protection of user data.”
“This hearing will be an important opportunity to shed light on critical consumer data privacy issues and help all Americans better understand what happens to their personal information online,” declared House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) in a statement. “We appreciate Mr. Zuckerberg’s willingness to testify before the committee, and we look forward to him answering our questions on April 11th.”
Last month, it was reported that Facebook was hiring more lobbyists in the wake of increased calls for regulation, while this week, Facebook revealed that up to 87 million users had their data improperly shared.
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.