2 Senate committees are planning a potential blockbuster grilling session of Mark Zuckerberg
- The Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Commerce Committee are considering binding together for a joint hearing to have Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testify on data and privacy issues.
- The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has already locked in Zuckerberg to testify on April 11.
WASHINGTON - Senate committees are weighing a rare joint hearing for Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify on privacy and data collection issues.
Both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation have invited Zuckerberg to testify in the wake of the scandal involving data firm Cambridge Analytica. While the Judiciary Committee originally wanted Zuckerberg to testify alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on April 10, the committee is now looking to band together with Commerce for a joint hearing.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein told reporters at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group in Sunnyvale, California on Monday that Zuckerberg has agreed to testify. She added in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board that "the question is whether it will be one committee or two."
In addition, a Republican aide told Business Insider that the committees are nearing an agreement to host a joint hearing.
The move to a joint hearing would reduce the number of days Zuckerberg would be forced to spend on Capitol Hill, limiting public exposure on what is already shaping up to be bad optics for the social media giant.
"At the highest level, this is what Congress does best: spank executives in public on behalf of their constituents," said Paul Rosenzweig, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute.
Those kind of tense exchanges with senators dominating the news cycle could be severely reduced in the event of a joint hearing, as Zuckerberg will not have to come back to Washington week in and week out.
If the two committees follow through and join together for a single hearing - and Zuckerberg accepts - he will still be summoned to Capitol Hill more than once.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce announced on Wednesday that Zuckerberg had accepted their invitation to testify on April 11.
"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," said Reps. Greg Walden and Frank Pallone, who serve as the top Republican and Democrats on the committe, respectively. "We appreciate Mr. Zuckerberg's willingness to testify before the committee, and we look forward to him answering our questions on April 11th."
Zuckerberg told reporters on Wednesday in a conference call that he would be sending other Facebook officials to brief and testify before other governments such as the United Kingdom.