Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is paying a rare visit to Washington this week, meeting with members of Congress to discuss the “future of Internet regulation.”
Facebook declined to offer further details on the trip, including whether Zuckerberg would visit the White House.
In March, Zuckerberg called on regulators to take a “more active role” on issues related to Internet policy, including areas such as online extremism, political advertising and data privacy.
“The rules governing the Internet allowed a generation of entrepreneurs to build services that changed the world and created a lot of value in people’s lives,” he wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post. “It’s time to update these rules to define clear responsibilities for people, companies and governments going forward.”
But Zuckerberg could get an earful from lawmakers who want to see Facebook adopt a more aggressive approach to these matters, too. Democrats and Republicans have called on the tech giant to be more proactive in spotting and removing harmful content and protecting users’ data. Some on Capitol Hill feel Facebook should have faced a larger fine and other tough punishments from the U.S. government after privacy scandals including its entanglement with political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.
