Zuckerberg to testify before Congress on Libra

Zuckerberg will be the lone witness at a hearing entitled “An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors,” which will be held Oct. 23. There, the social media magnate will get the chance to defend Libra amid a storm of criticism from lawmakers surrounding the digital offering.

Since announcing Calibra, a digital wallet for Libra, in June, Facebook and Zuckerberg have come under fire for their part in the venture, given their history of privacy woes. It was just last year that Zuckerberg testified in front of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees regarding the Cambridge Analytica scandal that eventually culminated in a record-breaking $5 billion fine from the Federal Trade Commission.

In September, House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) in a meeting with all five Securities and Exchange Commission commissioners brought up Libra and its risks. Waters in July sent a letter to Facebook requesting an immediate moratorium on the implementation of Libra, which was initially planned to be available as early as 2020.

Zuckerberg’s testimony will come the same month the Libra Association—a number of companies, including Facebook, that are involved in the development of the cryptocurrency—saw its first big defector in PayPal. Reports indicate Visa, Mastercard, and other partners are also having second thoughts about their involvement with Libra.