The Democratic senator suggests possible jail time for Mark Zuckerberg
Sen. Ron Wyden said that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg should potentially be punished with jail time over the social media giant's privacy lapses.
“Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly lied to the American people about privacy. I think he should be held personally responsible, which is everything from financial fines to – and let me emphasize this – the possibility of prison sentences. Because he hurt a lot of people, "Oregon Democrat told Willamette Week .
"And by the way, there is a precedent for this: When it comes to financial services, if the CEO and executives lie about the economy, they can be held personally accountable," he said.
Wyden published a draft law delay late last year that suggested a sentence of 1[ads1]0 to 20 years in prison for executives who abuse consumer data.
In April, he sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking the agency to hold Zuckerberg "individually responsible" for "repeated violations of Americans' privacy."
Zuckerberg has said he is open to more government regulation as Facebook faced a series of scandals involving user data in recent years. Zuckerberg testified before Congress in April 2018 that Facebook does not "sell data to anyone" and that users have control over how their data is used.
The New York Times later reported that Facebook has agreements with companies such as Netflix, Amazon and Microsoft that gave them access to users' timelines, private messages and friend lists.