Rep. Carter grills Zuckerberg on drug ads, piracy on Facebook

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday, the second of two congressional hearings for him this week.

Zuckerberg faced another grilling on user privacy and foreign intervention on the site following reports that Cambridge Analytica gained access to personal data of Facebook users.

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga. questioned Zuckerberg on a variety of topics, but strayed away from questions regarding privacy.

Read the full exchange on opioid addiction, endangered goods and piracy below.

CARTER: You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the privacy, people’s information and the privacy and the fact that you had this lapse. You know all about fake news, you know all about foreign intervention and I know you’re concerned about that.

I want to talk about just a few different subjects if you will, and I’d like to ask you just some yes or no questions. Please excuse my redundancy, I know that some members have already asked you about some of these subjects.

But I would like to ask you, Mr. Zuckerberg, did you know that 91 people die every day of opioid addiction? Yes or no. Did you know that? 91 people every day.

ZUCKERBERG: I did not know that specifically.

CARTER: Did you know that it’s estimated to be between 2.5 to 11.5 million people in this country right now who are addicted to opioids?

ZUCKERBERG: Yes.

CARTER: Okay, did you know that the average age of Americans has decreased for the first time in decades as a result - of what people are saying as a result - of the opioid epidemic?

ZUCKERBERG: Yes, especially among certain demographics.

CARTER: Absolutely. I ask you this because some of the other members have mentioned about the ads for fentanyl and other illicit drugs that are on the internet and where you can buy them and your responsibility to monitor that and make sure that not happening.

I had the opportunity this past week to speak at the Prescription Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta that Rep. Hal Rogers started some years ago. Also, we had the FDA commissioner there and he mentioned the fact that he’s gonna be meeting with CEO of internet companies to discuss this problem.

I hope that you will be willing to at least have someone there to meet with him so that we can get your help in this. This is extremely important.

ZUCKERBERG: Congressman I will make sure that someone is there. This is an important issue.

CARTER: Okay, let me ask you another question, Mr. Zuckerberg.  Did you know that there are conservation groups that have provided evidence to the Security and Exchange Commision that endangered wildlife goods, in particular ivory, is extensively traded on closed groups on Facebook?

ZUCKERBERG: Congressman, I was not specifically aware of that, but I think we know that there are issues with content like this that we need to do more proactive monitoring for.

CARTER: Alright, well let me ask you, did you know that there are some conservation groups that assert there is so much ivory being sold on Facebook that it’s literally contributing to the extinction of the elephant species?

ZUCKERBERG: Congressman, I had not heard that.

CARTER: Okay. And did you know that the Motion Picture Association of America is having problems with piracy of movies and of their products and that not only is this challenging their profits, but their very existence? Did you know that that was a problem?

ZUCKERBERG: Congressman, I believe that has been an issue for a long time.

CARTER: It has been. It has been. So you did know that. Well, the reason that I ask you this is I just want to make sure that I understand you have an understanding of a commitment.

Look, you said earlier - it may have been yesterday - that hate speech is difficult to discern. And I get that, I understand that, and you’re absolutely right. But these things are not and we need your help with this.

Now, I will tell you that there are members of this body who would like to see the internet monitored as a utility. I am not one of those. I believe that would be the worst thing we could do. I believe it would stifle innovation. I don’t think you can legislate morality and I don’t want to try to do that.

But we need a commitment from you that these things that can be controlled like this, that you will help us. And that you will work with law enforcement to help us with this.

Look, you love America, I know that. We all know that. We need your help here. I don’t want Congress to have to act. You want to see a mess? You let the federal government get into this. You’ll see a mess, I assure you.

Please, we need your help with this and I just need your commitment. Can I get that commitment?

ZUCKERBERG: Congressman, yes. We take this very seriously. That’s a big part of the reason overall, these content issues, why by the end of this year we’re going to have more than 20,000 people working on security and content review. And we need to build more tools too. I agree.

CARTER: Thank you very much.

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thanks