Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made his highly anticipated appearance before Congress today. It was nothing short of a five long hours of a marathon. As noted by CNBC, Mark brought his notes to the U.S. Senate hearing, and the notes give us some insight into how Facebook prepared him for the big day.
Zuck’s notes go beyond what he said during the hearing. It is worth noting that Facebook didn’t officially release the notes. However photojournalist Andy Harnik snapped a picture of two pages, and it was shared by a CBS editor, Stefan Becket on Twitter.
Photo of Zuck's notes, by AP's @andyharnik pic.twitter.com/wF0WAkDdI4
— Stefan Becket (@becket) April 10, 2018
If you take a quick peek at the notes, you can see how Zuckerberg’s team have specifically instructed him about the things to say as well as things to avoid saying during the hearing. Here are some interesting standouts:
- “Don’t say we already do what GDPR requires.” The GDPR section in the note advises Zuckerberg to avoid saying Facebook already complies with the law. Facebook doesn’t comply with the law. However, the bullet points in the notes do not include any confirmation on whether Facebook will expand GDPR protections to users worldwide.
- “Lots of stories about apps misusing Apple data, never seen Apple notify people,” This particular line is highlighted within a section that’s dedicated to Apple and Tim Cook’s recent comments.
- Facebook, as we all know, is mostly considered as a place for the companies who want to reach lots of people through advertising. Well, Mark’s team was well prepared for some questions regarding that, and here what they suggested Mark to say – “Advertisers have choices too — $650 billion markets, we have 6%.“
- The go-to emergency section: As the name suggests, this particular statement was added by Mark’s team to be used in the event of especially strong criticism of Facebook. It says, “If attacked: Respectfully, I reject that. Not who we are.“
Obviously, the notes had a lot of other interesting details. But sadly, most of it has not been revealed, and may never be. In case you’re interested, you can read the full text of Zuckerberg’s testimony here.
