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The live hearing has ended. Mark Zuckerberg’s second congressional appearance took place on April 11, 2018, before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee. You can watch the official recording or read the preliminary transcript.
Watch the official hearing replay
Watch the recorded hearing on Congress.gov. The recording runs approximately 5 hours, 15 minutes, and 38 seconds and covers the full House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.
The event was formally titled Facebook: Transparency and Use of Consumer Data. It began at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, April 11, 2018, in Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. Zuckerberg appeared as Facebook’s chairman and CEO. The Congress.gov hearing record and the House event listing provide the official details and related materials.
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What “day two” means
This was the second of Zuckerberg’s two consecutive congressional appearances, not a continuation of the same committee hearing. On April 10, he testified before a joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce hearing. The following day, the House Energy and Commerce Committee questioned him separately about Facebook’s data practices and responsibilities.
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What lawmakers asked about
The hearing ranged across Facebook’s handling of consumer information, the Cambridge Analytica controversy, third-party developer access, foreign election interference, misinformation, hate speech and content moderation. Members also asked about the company’s advertising model, user control and whether social-media companies should face regulation.
In his prepared statement, Zuckerberg said Facebook had not done enough to prevent its tools from being used for harm, including in connection with fake news, foreign interference, hate speech, developers and privacy. The hearing pressed on what Facebook knew, what safeguards it used and how its business incentives related to its data practices.
Notable moments from the testimony
- Zuckerberg said his own information was affected. During questioning, he told lawmakers that his personal information was among the data obtained by outside parties in the broader controversy. That statement does not establish that his account was handled in the same way as every affected user’s.
- He said regulation was likely. Zuckerberg described regulation of the social-media industry as “inevitable,” while warning that poorly designed rules could cause problems. Consult the transcript for the full exchange and its context.
- Members pressed him on tracking outside Facebook. Questions about browser history and activity beyond Facebook’s own services involved distinctions among logged-in products, social plugins, cookies and other tracking. A shorthand claim that Facebook tracked every person’s entire browsing history would overstate what this exchange establishes.
- Data access and advertising were recurring issues. Lawmakers examined how third-party developers obtained information and how Facebook used data in its advertising system. Saying Facebook simply “sold user data” can obscure the differences among direct sale, developer access or harvesting, and ad targeting.
- Political bias and moderation also came up. Members raised concerns about content decisions and alleged bias alongside broader questions about platform responsibility.
Contemporary coverage described different emphases in the questioning; those characterizations are interpretations, not official findings. For the precise wording of answers, use the official preliminary, unedited transcript.
Transcript, testimony and other records
- Congress.gov hearing record — the central record for hearing details and documents.
- Preliminary transcript — an unedited record of the exchanges.
- Zuckerberg’s prepared testimony — his statement submitted for the hearing.
- House event materials — the event listing and associated hearing documents, including witness materials and questions for the record where available.
- House committee hearing page — committee-hosted hearing information and materials.
For a contemporaneous account of how the hearing unfolded, see The Guardian’s archived live blog or CBS News’ live coverage. These are reporting and commentary, so refer to the congressional record for the official transcript.
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