Facebook Grilled By Senators About & # 39; Crazy & # 39; Cryptocurrency Plans. It didn't go well.

Congress lawmakers grilled a Facebook executive Tuesday on the social media giant's plans for a new worldwide crypto-riot network, with some saying they didn't rely on the technology in an ongoing slump in privacy practices.

The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on Facebook's plans for Libra, a new digital financial system announced in June, largely concerned that the company moved to launch the platform without the time for regulators and lawmakers to properly know the. The company stunned Washington last month when it said it hoped to launch Libra as early as 2020 with a coalition of economic and technical partners and to allow millions of Facebook users to easily send money to each other worldwide.

During the hearing, a bipartisan group of legislators grilled Facebook Vice President David Marcus, who is in charge of the Libra project, says they were concerned about the social media firm's reputation for user data.

"Facebook is dangerous," Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), bank committee ranking member, said hearing. "The last thing we need is to concentrate even more power on big companies. Look at Facebook's record. We would be crazy to give them a chance to experiment with people's bank accounts and use powerful tools they don't understand, like monetary policy, to Enable hard-working Americans to provide for their families. "

Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) Was more blunt and simply said, "I don't trust you."

"Instead of cleaning up your house, launching You enter a new business model, "said the legislator, pointing to what she called" repeated fraud "by Facebook. 19659002] Marcus repeatedly moved to facilitate lawmakers, saying that Libra would not be offered to the public until legal concerns were taken care of. He said Facebook was obliged to "take the time to get this done."

"We have made mistakes in the past," he said. "We've been working and working hard to get better."

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission announced a fine of about $ 5 billion to Facebook over privacy breaches centered on Cambridge Analytica data breaches. If approved by the Ministry of Justice, the fine will be the largest ever levied against a technology company and will signal Washington's will to do its part in emptying the Silicon Valley giants.

But some lawmakers have lambasted the size of the bow, saying it would just be a blow to the wrist for Facebook, giving more than $ 15 billion in revenue in the first quarter of this year. Democrats had urged the FTC to force Facebook to limit its ability to collect and share user data, but according to reports, the $ 5 billion deal does not contain such provisions.

"Trump's FTC commissioners have rolled over the monopoly, voted 3-2 for a slap-on-the-wrist settlement with Facebook," Freedom From Facebook, an anti-Facebook coalition, said after reports of fines were made public . "The FTC continues to deploy its inability to protect US consumers and markets, and Congress needs to investigate the FTC's failure to comply with their obligations."

Despite the opposition during Tuesday's hearing, some lawmakers applaud Facebook for their efforts to create a new financial system with an eye on underdeveloped nations that may not have formal banking systems. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) Said that Libra's premature conversations were "very early" and encouraged lawmakers to look at how Facebook's plan could be a "very constructive innovation."

"We should explore this and consider the benefits as well as the risks and take a cautious approach," Toomey says, according to Politico. "To announce in advance that we must choke this baby in the crib, it's too early." [19659002] But The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Facebook had privately owned Libra for more than a dozen government officials, including those from the Treasury Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, many of whom expressed even more concern after the meeting that Facebook was unprepared to take into account the concerns about past privacy practices and how it hopes to inoculate Libra against data issues in the future.