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It's not that Zuckerberg is doing so well, it's that lawmakers are performing too badly.
After two consecutive days of "torture" by members of the marathon, Facebook founder and CEO Zuckerberg left an impression of "beyond expectations", and Facebook's stock price even appeared on the first day. The biggest one-day gain in the past two years, Zuckerberg's personal net worth soared nearly 3 billion US dollars after the end of the day.
The Congress Hall is naturally not a place where Zuckerberg feels comfortable. In preparation for these two hearings, Zuckerberg arrived in Washington DC one day in advance. Washington was still cold in early April, and most of the people here were dressed in dark gray. Coat, with a somber expression and a hurry, this is completely different from the bright and warm California. This is not that he can wear T-shirts and shorts, and do online video broadcasts with his wife and children in his own backyard barbecue. Facebook users easily chat moments.
He had to put on a dark blue tailored suit tailored for him, tie a tie, sit behind a table with the famous brand "Mr. Zuckberg", and share a room with dozens of senators and hundreds of media reporters Through the next 5 and a half hour hearing.
"He was nervous, but he seemed confident," a person at the scene described, "he is a smart man."
Before he was seated, Zuckerberg was surrounded by a wall of dozens of on-site photojournalists. Every angle of his entire body, every detail of his action expression, was mercilessly exposed in front of the cold camera.
But Zuckerberg was clearly prepared. He sat upright at the hearing seat, listened carefully to every question, and made eye contact with the legislator who asked the question. Add the habit of the "so" mood, and instead use "Senator", "Congressman", or "Congresswoman" to call the person asking him the question before answering.
On his desk was an outline of the response prepared by his team for him in advance. During the break between the hearings, the media at the scene took a page of it. The thick stack of paper basically involved all they could. Questions that may have been asked by members in advance, his seat was put on a thick cushion, perhaps also carefully prepared for him by the team, in order to make him appear larger in front of the camera and more in line with the leader in crisis times Image.
Although he swallowed from time to time, with an awkward expression, or raised the glass frequently, Zuckerberg who appeared in Congress was not the one we used to wear a gray hoodie and spoke fast, saying "Quick action, break everything" The image of a young entrepreneur, but a well-trained and responsive CEO, is the image of a leader in a company in crisis.
In contrast, the dozens of MPs sitting opposite Zuckerberg at the hearing were disappointing in their performance, or people had never expected too much from the hearing, and dozens of issues revealed these People in the political circle are completely separated from the 21st century technology circle. Many questions and answers between them and Zuckerberg seem to be talking to each other in their own context systems, and there are many unspeakable awkward moments.
For example, a lawmaker asked, "How do you maintain your company's operations if users don't pay for the services you provide?"
Zuckerberg paused for a moment and said, "Senator, we sell ads."
"Oh, yes," said the senator.
A lawmaker said, "My 13-year-old son Charlie is an active Instagram user, and he made me sure to mention him today."
Another MP said, "If I send an email through Whatsapp (Facebook's instant messaging app), will this let advertisers know what's inside?"
Many questions from lawmakers exposed their ignorance of some of the most basic Internet common sense or the Facebook company. One user on Twitter even mocked, "The average age of these lawmakers is 100."
During the whole hearing, the questions of the lawmakers were still lacking in focus. They were often borderless and circled around some unrelated issues.
Under the "no power" of the lawmakers, Zuckerberg was able to complete the two tasks in an orderly manner in accordance with the strategy designed by the previous team: admitting mistakes, apologizing, and not answering specific questions. , Give the team follow-up follow-up, make no promises, do not negate the current business model, and do not behave too greedy.
Michael Connor, executive director of the Open MIC organization, commented that Zuckerberg's hearing performance could only be "reluctantly passed", not "excellent". The agency representing Facebook investors publicly called for Zuckerberg to step down from all positions at Facebook the day before the hearing.
The hearing was initiated from the outbreak of Facebook ’s large-scale user data leak. As the source said that the big data company Cambridge Analytica used a large amount of user data obtained from Facebook to conduct accurate political advertising to affect political activities. The incident may involve 8700 Ten million Facebook users, most of whom are in the United States, have caught Washington's attention.
The other key words of this incident are "Russian manipulation" and "U.S. presidential election", which have touched the national security and core interests of the United States. Out of responsibility to voters in their respective constituencies, this hearing is inevitable.
But the performance of members of parliament at the hearing may not even meet the "pass" criteria. The ultimate purpose of the hearing is to allow these legislators to better understand the situation, and ultimately to at least form a consensus on some existing issues and resolve them through the legislative process, although Zuckerberg himself during the hearing It also clearly expressed its willingness to accept "correct supervision", but at least from the two days of the hearing scene, there is little hope to achieve the above purpose.
Another embarrassing fact is that most of the nearly 100 lawmakers who participated in the hearings have directly or indirectly accepted Facebook's political contributions. In the past 12 years, Facebook has invested a total of $ 7 million in political donations. From 2014 to the present, lawmakers questioned by Zuckerberg have received more than 640,000 political contributions from Facebook.
The two-day hearing was evaluated by a Twitter user as a "scene" and had no "substantial significance". If the first day of the hearing, Zuckerberg still showed a nervous expression from time to time, and the next day he was completely With a stern look, when the MP who chaired the entire hearing proposed a break, Zuckerberg replied, "How many more questions?" CNN commented that the two-day hearing allowed Zuckerberg to get The whole body retreated without any injuries.