We face a number of important issues around privacy
Safety and democracy and you will rightfully have some hard questions for me to answer
Before I talk about the steps we're taking to address them I want to talk about how we got here
Facebook is an idealistic and optimistic company for most of our existence
We focused on all the good that connecting people can do and as Facebook has grown people everywhere have gotten a powerful new tool
For staying connected to the people they love
For making their voices heard and for building communities and businesses
Just recently. We've seen the e2 movement and the March for our lives organized at least in part on Facebook
after hurricane Harvey people came together to raise more than 20 million dollars for relief and more
Than 70 million biz small businesses use Facebook to create jobs and grow
but it's clear now that we didn't do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well and
That goes for fake news
Foreign interference and elections and hate speech as well as developers and data privacy
We didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility, and that was a big mistake, and it was my mistake
and I'm sorry
I started Facebook, I run it and I'm responsible for what happens here.
After more than a decade of promises to do better.
How is today's?
Apology different, and why should we trust?
Facebook to make the necessary changes to ensure user privacy and give people a clearer picture of your privacy policies
Thank You Mr. Chairman
So we have made a lot of mistakes in running the company. I think it's it's pretty much impossible
I believe to start a company in your dorm room and then grow it to be at the scale that we're at now without
making some mistakes and because our service is about
helping people connect and information
Those mistakes have been different in how they we try not to make the same mistake multiple times
But in general a lot of the mistakes are around how people connect to each other just because of the nature of the search
Overall I would say that we're going through a broader philosophical shift in how we approach our responsibility as a company
for the first 10 or 12 years of the company
I viewed our responsibility as primarily building tools that if we could put those tools in people's hands
Then that would empower people to do good things what I think we've learned now across a number of issues
not just data privacy
But also fake news and foreign interference and elections is that we need to take a more proactive role in a broader view of our
Responsibility it's not enough to just build tools
We need to make sure that they're used for good and that means that we need to now take a more active view in
policing the eco system
and in
Watching and kind of looking out and making sure that all of the members in our community are using these tools in a way
That's gonna. Be good and healthy so at the end of the day
This is going to be something where people will measure us by our results on this
It's not that I expect that anything I say here today to
Necessarily change people's view, but I'm committed to getting this right, and I believe that over the coming years once
We fully work all these solutions through people will see real real differences
Facebook's been served a subpoenas
For the special counselor's office is that correct?
Yes if you were anyone at Facebook, but interviewed by the special counsels office?
Yes/ Have you been interviewed?
I have not/ Others have? I believe so and I want to be careful here because that
our
work with the special counsel is
Confidential and I want to make sure that in an open session. I'm not revealing something that's confidential who's there?
There's one made clear that you have been contacted you have
Actually, let me clarify that I I actually am not aware of a subpoena
I believe that there may be but I know we're working with them. Thank you. You're
Chief operating officer Ms. Sandberg
suggested on the NBC Today Show that
Facebook users who do not want their personal
information used for advertising
Might have to pay for that protection pay for it
Are you actually?
Pay for you not to use that information
Senator
People have a control over how their information is used in ads in the product today
So if you want to have an experience where your ads
Aren't you aren't targeted using all the information that we have available you can turn off third-party information?
What we found is that even though some people don't like ads
people really don't like ads that aren't relevant and
While there is some discomfort for sure with using information in making ads
more relevant
The overwhelming feedback that we get from our community is that people would rather have us
Show relevant content there
than not
So we offer this control that either you're referencing
Some people use it. It's not the majority of people on Facebook
and and I think that that's
That's a good level of control to offer
I think what Cheryl was saying was that in order to not run ads at all we would still need some sort of business model
and that
Is your business model so I take it that?
And I use the harmless example of chocolate, but if it got into more personal thing
communicating with friends
And I want to cut it off
I'm gonna have to pay you
In order not to send me
using my personal information
Something that I don't want that
In essence is what I understood Miss Anne Berg to say is that correct?
Yes, senator, although to be clear
We don't offer an option today for people to pay to not show ads
We think offering an ad-supported service is the most aligned with our mission of trying to help connect everyone in the world
Because we want to offer a free service that everyone can afford okay
That's the only way that we can reach billions of people so therefore you can my personally identifiable data
The company's data not my data. Is that it?
No senator actually at the first line of our Terms of Service
Say that you control and owned the information and content that you put on Facebook. You don't think you have a monopoly
All right certainly doesn't feel like that to me. Here's the question that all of us kind of answered. What do we tell our constituents?
Given what's happened here?
While we should let you self-regulate
What would you tell people in South Carolina that given all the things? We've just discovered here
It's a good idea for us to rely upon you to regulate your own business practices
Well senator my position is not that there should be no regulation
I think the internet is increasing in embrace regulation
I think the real question as the Internet becomes more important in people's lives is what is the right regulation not?
Whether there should be you as a company welcomed regulation
I think if it's the right regulation then you think the Europeans have it right
I think that they get things right have you ever submitted
That's true
So would you work with us in terms of what regulations? You think are necessary in your industry?
Absolutely, okay, would you submit this and proposed regulations yes?
And I'll have my team follow up with you
So that way we can have this discussion across the different categories where I think that this discussion needs to look forward to it
Would you support a child?
online
privacy bill of rights for kids under 16 to guarantee that that information is
not reused for any other purpose without explicit permission from the parents or the kids
Senator I think that as a general principle
I think protecting people protecting minors and protecting their privacy is extremely important
And we do a number of things on facebook to do that already which I'm happy. I'm talking about a law
I'm talking about a lot, would you support a law to ensure that kids under 16 have this?
Privacy Bill of Rights I had this conversation with you in your office seven years ago about this specific
in palo alto
And and I think that's really what the american people want to know right now. What is the protections of?
This what are the protections that are going to be put on the books for their families, but especially for their children?
Would you support a privacy Bill of Rights for kids? Where opt-in is the standard yes or no?
Senator I think that that's an important principle and precinct, and I think we should we need a law to protect those children
That's my question - do you believe we need a lot to do so yes or no
Senator, I'm not sure if we need a law
But I think that this is certainly a thing that that discard that that deserves a lot of discussion
And I again, I couldn't disagree with you more other. We're leaving these children to the most rapacious
commercial predators in the country who will exploit these children unless we absolutely have a law on the books and
Absolutely scary sure please give a short answer
Senator I look forward to having my team follow up to flesh out the details of it
I don't think this is like Senator play to get a grip correct answer. Thank You Mr. Chairman