Washington - Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said
Wednesday he believes the US government will pass more regulation
affecting the operations of the social media platform he founded.
"I think it's inevitable that there will be some regulation" as the
internet grows in importance around the world, Zuckerberg, 33, told
members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Zuckerberg is on his second day of testifying before Congress over a
massive data privacy breach for which he has repeatedly apologized.
While his explanation of the data breach and Facebook's response
played prominently in Tuesday's testimony in the Senate, on Wednesday
the topic turned quickly to regulation.
Several members of the committee raised the possibility of government
oversight, with some saying it's necessary to prevent exposures like
the one involving Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook recently had to admit that data belonging to some 87 million
users was misused after some users downloaded an app that later
shared their data and that of their friends with the research firm.
Zuckerberg cautioned that any legislation they propose to prevent
such data breaches could hurt start-up companies.
"I think a lot of times regulation puts in place rules that a large
company like ours can easily comply with, but that small start-ups
can't," Zuckerberg said.
One committee member said he believes it's time for Congress to pass
legislation.
"If all we do is have a hearing and nothing happens, then we haven't
accomplished anything," said Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New
Jersey.