Congress is about to put Mark Zuckerberg through the ringer - but the open secret is lawmakers don't know what will come of it
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is being brought in to testify before Congress this week.
- Lawmakers are uncertain that substantial regulations will make their way to the floor in the near future to assess privacy concerns.
- Republicans remain generally averse to adding more regulations in most sectors of the economy, with tech companies being no different.
WASHINGTON - Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on Capitol Hill this week to face a barrage of questions from lawmakers looking to probe the tech giant over concerns about privacy, data collection, and more.
But when Zuckerberg finally gets to go home to California at the end of the week, it is unclear what, if anything, Congress will do next.
A handful of lawmakers have backed legislation to regulate online political ads, which Zuckerberg himself has publicly supported. But whether it gets floor time in an otherwise crowded Senate schedule is up in the air.
"You can't do this on an ad hoc basis," Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia told reporters. "You're gonna need - I believe - legislation so that Americans are aware of the source of political advertising they're seeing."
Warner is one of the senators behind the Honest Ads Act, which would bring companies like Facebook into the same regulatory sphere as television and other mediums through which paid political advertising is conducted.
"I'm optimistic. This is the first step," Warner added. "By no means is this comprehensive. We've got real questions around the whole question of fake accounts where a lot more of the damage has been done and that really was not the case of paid political advertising."
Other Democrats were less optimistic about the future of any legislation going after tech companies, unless it is approached from a national security angle.
"When it comes to the" meddling attempts by bad actors, "I'm confident that we are making progress and that we will continue to make progress," said Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat. "On the sort of broader question of data security and the bargain that consumers have struck - either knowingly or not - with social media platforms, that's gonna take time to suss out as public policy."
Sen. Bill Nelson, after leaving a meeting with Zuckerberg on Monday, said it is unlikely any progress will be made as long as President Donald Trump remains in the White House.
As to whether data privacy legislation is in the cards for Facebook, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who serves as the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said, "I think that all depends on what he says he is willing to do to establish a more regulated system. Then there's no question but that's my interest."
Republicans remain averse to regulations
Further, many Republicans are not entirely convinced that additional regulations are necessary. Instead, they want Zuckerberg and his counterparts at corporations like Google and Twitter to provide assurances that mistakes are being corrected and internal barriers are being put in place to prevent future mishaps.
"I think internet companies should be made by law to obey their agreements they have with their customers," said Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. "I think we already have laws that say it's against the law if you sign an agreement with me for me to do things with information that aren't [in the terms of use]."
"I think what's unclear to me yet is what exactly is in their agreement," Paul added. "What exactly do they do. So before anybody starts going crazy saying, 'Hey let's regulate the internet,' let's find out what does their agreement say and what have they done or not."
Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told Business Insider that Facebook should be fixing their own mistakes and making that clear to Congress, but that further laws are not necessary.
"I'm not interested in regulating Facebook," Kennedy said. "I'm interested in Facebook regulating itself and solving the problems - I come in peace - I don't wanna regulate Facebook half to death."
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said there's a need for regulation from a national security perspective because "clearly there's a concern of how these platforms are being used by terrorists."
Trump administration has focused much effort on deregulating various sectors of the economy. With Republicans still largely in control of government - as well as an already stacked legislative calendar - it is unlikely Congress will push forward with restrictions and regulations on the ways Facebook and similar companies collect and use customers' data.