Zuckerberg hearing: Facebook founder attacked by US politicians for site's 'bias' and failure to protect users - as it happened

Mark Zuckerberg says his personal data was sold to 'malicious third parties'

After navigating nearly five hours of questions from 44 US senators on Tuesday about the abuse of citizen's data, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has done it all again on Wednesday.

Once again, he was attacked on a range of fronts: as well as the company's failure to protect its users data, politicians questioned the site's perceived bias against conservative voices, and its use for selling illegal materials like drugs.

The billionaire Facebook boss will testified before the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, which was seeking answers following revelations that Cambridge Analytica harvested personal information from 87 million Facebook profiles for the purpose of voter profiling.

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Key Points

• Zuckerberg appears before Congress from 7am PT (3pm GMT) to answer questions relating to data abuse of users
• Zuckerberg's opening remarks: "It was my mistake, and I’m sorry... I’m responsible for what happens here."
• Facebook founder says his data was sold to 'malicious third parties'
• Analysis: How EU privacy regulations may become a model for the US

[11 April 2018 19:46 · Andrew Griffin]

Carter is focusing on the opioid epidemic. He asks Zuckerberg if he knows about a set of facts about the scale of it. He says he's asking because members have asked about ads for drugs like fentanyl on Facebook – which was mentioned earlier on. Will Zuckerberg at least send someone to meet with representatives to get its help on this.

[11 April 2018 19:47 · Andrew Griffin]

The same question is asked about evidence from conservation groups that goods from threatened animals are being traded in closed Facebook groups. Zuckerberg says he doesn't know. Carter then says that conservation groups argue the market on Facebook is contributing towards the extinction of elephants.

And now the same question but piracy. Does Zuckerberg know that content creators are worried about? Zuckerberg says that he believes it's been a problem for a long time.

[11 April 2018 19:48 · Andrew Griffin]

Closing up now. Two more reps left.

[11 April 2018 19:51 · Andrew Griffin]

Jeff Duncan says he'll give Zuckerberg a copy of the constitution. Why doesn't Facebook give people a similar protection – a rule like the first amendment, which allows people to be sure that the site is a place for all ideas.

Zuckerberg says that there's some kind of speech – like terrorist content – that is protected under the first amendment but which he doesn't want to spread on the internet. "Our general responsibility is to allow the broadest spectrum of free expression we can."

[11 April 2018 19:53 · Andrew Griffin]

Our final person, and our final four minutes!

[11 April 2018 19:55 · Andrew Griffin]

Kevin Cramer says he's glad we're not moving towards regulation for Facebook. But he's a little worried about their answers on drugs – what if there was regulation forcing them to find and shut down drug ads, and so on? It's certainly more important to do that than to shut down two conservative woman, he says. (There's another Diamond and Silk reference, even if an oblique one.)

Zuckerberg says he's miscommunicated if it seems like he's not committed to that.

[11 April 2018 19:56 · Andrew Griffin]

Cramer says that Zuckerberg has suggested that there might be a left-leaning bias because it hires from Silicon Valley, where people tend to be liberal. He says maybe they should hire from somewhere in the middle of the country (maybe in his district..).

[11 April 2018 19:59 · Andrew Griffin]

As the end approaches, the chairman jokes with Zuckerberg that he might not want to stay around for any more questions? "Several of your staff just passed out behind you."

With that, we're finished. Everyone thanks Zuckerberg for coming along.

Thanks to you, too, for reading and following along.