News Update: Who Could Tame Facebook?

As Atlantic staff writer Robinson Meyer recently wrote, Facebook “is currently embroiled in the worst crisis of trust in its 14-year history.” This week, the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the U.S. Congress for the first time. It’s not clear whether Congress will seek to exert more regulatory control over the company, even after revelations that as many as 87 million people unwittingly had their Facebook data given to the political firm Cambridge Analytica, which may have used some of that data to influence the 2016 U.S. election. And the questions senators asked of Zuckerberg suggest they may not yet understand Facebook well enough to regulate it effectively, even if they wanted to. In this Radio Atlantic news update, Rob shares what he learned from his exclusive interview with Zuckerberg, and from the CEO’s testimony before Congress. We discuss with Atlantic senior editor Gillian White whether Facebook can be regulated, and whether it will. Links - “Mark Zuckerberg Says He’s Not Resigning” (Robinson Meyer, April 9, 2018) - “The 3 Questions Mark Zuckerberg Hasn’t Answered” (Robinson Meyer, April 10, 2018) - “How Facebook’s Ad Tool Fails to Protect Civil Rights” (Gillian B. White, October 28, 2016) - “Facebook Lets Advertisers Exclude Users by Race” (Julia Angwin and Terry Parris Jr., ProPublica, October 28, 2016) - Sarah Jeong on Twitter - “The Most Important Exchange of the Zuckerberg Hearing” (Alexis C. Madrigal, April 11, 2018) - “Mark Zuckerberg Is Halfway to Scot-Free” (Alexis C. Madrigal, April 11, 2018) - “My Facebook Was Breached by Cambridge Analytica. Was Yours?” (Robinson Meyer, April 10, 2018) - “Can Anyone Unseat Mark Zuckerberg?” (Robinson Meyer, March 22, 2018) - “The Cambridge Analytica Scandal, in 3 Paragraphs” (Robinson Meyer, March 20, 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices