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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is escorted by U.S. Capitol Police as he walks in a hallway prior to a meeting with U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, April 9, 2018 on Capitol Hill.
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the United States House and Senate this week.
- The first hearing kicks off Tuesday at 2:15 pm ET, and Business Insider will be in attendance and covering it live.
After months of scandals, it's finally happening: Mark Zuckerberg is testifying.
This week, the Facebook CEO will testify in front of American lawmakers twice. On Tuesday, he will appear before a joint hearing of two Senate committees, while on Wednesday the 33-year-old exec will be grilled by a House committee.
Business Insider will be covering both hearings live, and will be bring readers all the news as soon as it happens. You can also follow along live by watching government livestreams of the events.
- The Senate Judiciary Committee and Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation joint hearing will take place on Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. ET (11:15 a.m. PT, or 7:15 p.m. BST). You can watch it via livestream (once it starts) here »
- The House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing, meanwhile, is taking place on Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET (7 a.m. PT, or 3 p.m. BST). You can watch it via livestream (once it starts) here »
The hearings come after months of bruising headlines for Facebook. The social network has faced serious scrutiny following the 2016 US presidential election, in which Russian operatives used the platform to peddle fake news and disinformation. And in March, it emerged that Cambridge Analytica, a political research firm used by Trump's campaign, illicitly obtained the personal data of up to 87 million users.
That crisis has since snowballed into a broader scandal over Facebook's approach to privacy and use of user data, with the controversy heightened by the leak of a memo written by a company exec in which they defended growth at any cost, even if people died (Zuckerberg has since said he strongly disagreed with the memo).
The company is now in full damage-control mode. Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg have embarked on an apology tour, giving numerous interviews to the media and insisting that Zuckerberg continues to be the best person to lead the company.
On Monday, Zuckerberg's prepared testimony for Wednesday's hearing was released. "My top priority has always been our social mission of connecting people, building community and bringing the world closer together," he will say "Advertisers and developers will never take priority over that as long as I'm running Facebook."
It remains to be seen if lawmakers will be convinced.