Mark Zuckerberg's Testimony To Congress Mocked For Confused Questions And That Resting Face

Few 'likes' for grilling of Facebook boss.
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Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before the US Congress has been derided - chiefly thanks to confused and confusing questions from middle-aged politicians struggling to grasp how Facebook works.

The 33-year-old billionaire fielded inquiries from Senators after Cambridge Analytica improperly used the data of 87 million Facebook users.

The social media pioneer admitted “we have made a lot of mistakes” and “I’m sorry”, repeatedly making references the company’s ‘origin story’ of being set-up in his Harvard dorm room.

Zuckerberg also revealed “one of my greatest regrets” is his slow reaction to Russian meddling in the US election.

But many people watching were more alarmed by the quality of the questions, with one Senator asking a question about Facebook algorithms work “if I’m emailing within WhatsApp” and Zuckerberg having to explain: “We have an app called Messenger for sending messages to your Facebook friends.”

The probe appeared to reach its nadir when a Republican Senator, Orrin Hatch, asked Zuckerberg how Facebook makes money.

“Senator, we run ads,” Zuckerberg responded, stunned he had to make its basic business model clear.

“Mr. Zuckerberg, a magazine i recently opened came with a floppy disk offering me 30 free hours of something called America On-Line. Is that the same as Facebook?” pic.twitter.com/U7pqpUhEhQ

— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) April 10, 2018

Zuckerberg: "We have an app called Messenger."

Nearly everyone on the Senate committee: Ah, interesting. Okay.@brianschatz: 🙄

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) April 10, 2018

It's painful watching (most) Senators talk about technology.

— Anthony De Rosa 🗽 (@Anthony) April 10, 2018

It's absurd that people criticize high school students for talking about gun control policy but are cool with having 80-year-olds question Mark Zuckerberg about Facebook, online privacy and AI.

— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) April 10, 2018

tfw you aren't being grilled by the Senate Judiciary Committee pic.twitter.com/0gbOmDtJq8

— Jeffrey Young (@JeffYoung) April 10, 2018

Perhaps the closet the committee got to landing a blow on ‘Zuck’ was when Senator Dick Durbin asked about his most recent night’s sleep.

He said: “Mr Zuckerberg, would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?”

After a pause, and sniggering, Zuckerberg said: “No.”

“If you messaged anyone this week would you share with us the names of the people you have messaged?,” Senator Durbin responded.

“Senator, no, I would probably not choose to do that publicly here,” Zuckerberg said.

Durbin said: “I think that may be what this is all about: your right to privacy, the limits of your right to privacy, and how much you give away, in modern America, in the name of connecting people around the world.”

And was this the nearest thing to a story?

Hahaha! "Who's your biggest competitor?
"Google. Apple..
"No, I mean a real competitor."
"Er.."
Do you have a monopoly"
"It certainly doesn't feel like it to me."
What. The. Fuck. Zuck.

— Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) April 10, 2018

In lieu of revelations, commentators let the memes do the talking.

As Senators all gave opening statements, Zuckerberg sat quietly with a resting face that was irresistible.

when u drink 2 glasses of red wine while watching Amelie and decide to cut your own bangs pic.twitter.com/EPYHtZn3QI

— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) April 10, 2018

*record scratch*

*freeze frame*

Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation. pic.twitter.com/AyJ6GeadU9

— Joshua Topolsky (@joshuatopolsky) April 10, 2018

When you know that you have enough information to destroy everyone questioning you pic.twitter.com/XqHk4Re0yI

— Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) April 10, 2018

TFW when people are gonna find out you’ve been selling access to data about how many cat memes users share. pic.twitter.com/UDDDrWR4HX

— Brian Spanner (@BrianSpanner1) April 10, 2018

when you mistime dropping in the queue and come up before you’ve passed the bouncer pic.twitter.com/VuqERoT7Cb

— Ido Vock (@idvck) April 10, 2018

pic.twitter.com/pU1K1Od1XA

— Richard Littler (@richard_littler) April 10, 2018

He looks like a man who’s stolen hundreds of knickers off local washing lines and, deep down, is relieved to have been caught. It’s over. pic.twitter.com/Or6j0AO2oR

— Ben Machell (@ben_machell) April 10, 2018

And the tableau of Zuckerburg surrounded by photographers became instantly iconic.

Privacy is a beautiful thing isn’t it pic.twitter.com/egTWkq4xfH

— Julia Macfarlane (@juliamacfarlane) April 10, 2018

“And as you can all see, there are charges totalling £900 on this bill for films that I certainly did not watch” pic.twitter.com/JeXNOAoAft

— . (@twlldun) April 10, 2018

・ 。
😏∴。 *
・゚*。PRIVACY・
・ *゚。 *
・ ゚*。・゚😏。
😏・。°*. ゚
* ゚。·*・。 ゚*
゚ *.。😏。YOUR DATA・
* 😏。・゚*.。
* LOL ゚・。 * 。
・ ゚😏 。 pic.twitter.com/MYcrZurgIi

— Kat Lap (@Its_Katka) April 10, 2018

pic.twitter.com/GWdQHN1yW9

— James Felton (@JimMFelton) April 10, 2018
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