There is a proverb that when Rome was burning, Emperor Nero was playing the flute. And this time, when Facebook suddenly went dark, Frances Haugen, their former data scientist, began to testify in the US Senate; At that time Mark Zuckerberg was on a pleasure trip in a sailing boat.
Several senators present at the Senate session questioned his absence from the main scene on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, local time in the United States.
One of them is Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal who said, “Mark Zuckerberg should look in the mirror today; instead of taking the lead, he is now on a pleasure boat. ”
Soon after, Zuckerberg’s role as the company’s top official and his ability to make single decisions on algorithm and other product issues became more important than his pleasure trip.
Pointing a finger at Zuckerberg in the testimony, Haugen said Facebook harms children and increases divisions in society.
Senators from both Republican and Democratic parties have agreed that Facebook needs to change the way it stops spreading fake information, ranging from failing to protect users’ privacy at hearings.
However, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, has long claimed that Haugen’s allegations were “misinterpreted”; though, he did not say anything about the pleasure trip.
