Facebook Inc. founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg sat for hours in front of Congress to address questions about such issues as the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections and Facebook’s monopoly as a social media platform.

By most accounts, Zuckerberg (pictured, right) not only survived the experience testifying before a joint session of the Commerce and Judiciary committees, but even acquitted himself fairly skillfully in the face of sometimes pointed questioning by one senator after another. Some critics pointed out, correctly, that he skirted around several issues and frequently didn’t have answers, saying his “team” would find them. But one constituency liked what they heard: investors. Facebook’s shares rose nearly 5 percent Tuesday.

Here are the highlights of the day:

Monopoly

Before Zuckerberg faced Congress, The Daily Beast asked for Facebook to be broken up, stating that a company whose “business model is surveillance and manipulation of users” had grown into a digital Leviathan of sorts that needed to be stopped.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) asked Zuckerberg about Facebook’s monopoly: “Who is your biggest competitor?” Zuckerberg seemed to skirt around the question, giving the name of other large tech companies, but it seemed obvious the senator was wanting to know what is the people’s alternative to Facebook?

“If I buy a Ford, and it doesn’t work well, and I don’t like it, I can buy a Chevy. If I’m upset with Facebook, what’s the equivalent product I can go sign up for?” asked Graham. Zuckerberg again talked about Facebook’s varying services, to which Graham came right out with it and asked him if he thought Facebook had a monopoly. “It certainly doesn’t feel like that to me,” replied Zuckerberg, which caused some giggling in the room.

 
Privacy

As for Facebook’s collection of data on its 2 billion-plus users, how it’s collected and what is done with it, Zuckerberg faced a number of questions.

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nevada) asked Zuckerberg if he thought Facebook was more responsible with “millions of Americans’ personal data than the federal government would be.” Zuckerberg thought about this and then said, “Yes.” He added that at least Facebook users willingly share their data, while government agencies might surreptitiously acquire it.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) grilled Zuckerberg on the issue of privacy, asking him how much information he would willingly make public — for instance, what hotel he stayed at last night. Zuckerberg acknowledged that personally there were many things he would not want to be in the public realm.

“The question is what information Facebook’s collecting, who they’re sending it to, and whether they’ve asked me in advance, my permission to do that,” said Durbin. “Is that a fair thing for a user of Facebook to expect?” Zuckerberg replied, “I think everyone should have control over how their information is used.”

Data

The issue of data collection was a big one, especially in view of the Cambridge Analytica scandal in which 87 million of Facebook users’ data was harvested and used to target ads that were intended to help now-President Donald Trump. Zuckerberg reiterated what he has already said: An investigation into apps and what data they collect is on the way.

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley (pictured, left) talked about the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the massive amount of data Facebook collects on its users. He asked Zuckerberg how many times such a thing as the data harvesting scandal may have happened and if it will happen again. Again, Zuckerberg promised a full investigation and an upcoming report to be presented to Congress.

Grassley, and others throughout the hearing, seemed concerned that Facebook users didn’t know what they were sharing, that the platform didn’t always make it clear. Zuckerberg responded: “That’s why, every single time you go to share something on Facebook, whether it’s a photo in Facebook, or a message — in Messenger or WhatsApp, every single time, there’s a control right there about who you’re going to be sharing it with — whether it’s your friends or public or a specific group — and you can — you can change that and control that in line.”

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) asked Zuckerberg if Facebook tracks users even when they are not logged in to Facebook. “I know that people use cookies on the internet, and that people can probably correlate activity between sessions,” he replied.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan) went a step further and asked Zuckerberg if Facebook was collecting audio data from people’s smartphones. Listening in to people’s private conversations might seem a breach too far, but Peters said such a question needed to be asked given the public’s growing mistrust of Facebook.

“Yes or no: Does Facebook use audio obtained from mobile devices to enrich personal information about its users?” Zuckerberg said no.

Heller grilled Zuckerberg over data deletion, asking the question, “How long do you keep a user’s data?” Zuckerberg seemed not to understand the question at first. Heller asked again, “If they choose to delete their account, how long do you keep their data?” Zuckerberg said he didn’t know the answer because deleting all the data is complex, but he’d get his team to find out.

Misinformation

Zuckerberg said throughout the hearing that Facebook was using artificial intelligence to moderate the platform, whether that is related to hate speech or the spread of misinformation, and planned to use it much more in the future.

As for Russian election meddling Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) asked Zuckerberg if he was working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller regarding Russian propaganda appearing on Facebook. “I want to be careful here because 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,” Zuckerberg replied.

California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein simply asked, “What is Facebook doing to prevent foreign actors from interfering in U.S. elections?”

Zuckerberg admitted that he now regrets that Facebook wasn’t able to spot the attacks earlier, stating, “We expected them to do a number of more traditional cyberattacks, which we did identify and notified the campaigns that they were trying to hack into them.”

He talked about upcoming elections all around the world and the importance of Facebook during those elections. Bad actors, he said, will try to exploit Facebook and other platforms. He called this an “arms race,” but said that with AI and an additional 20,000 people “working on security and content review across the company” by the end of this year, he hoped to prevent Facebook being used as a soapbox for misinformation.

Paid Facebook?

Will Facebook ever have a paid version in which people won’t be targeted by advertisers or their data packaged? “There will always be a version of Facebook that is free,” Zuckberg told Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), adding that Facebook’s mission has always been to connect people and “bring the world closer together.” Take from it what you will, but it seems that Zuckerberg might be mulling over a paid version of Facebook.

On Wednesday Zuckerberg will answer questions before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Image: YouTube/screenshot