Mark Zuckerberg had so many softball questions, he might as well have been talking to his grandparents about 'the internets'

Few of the 44 senators present displayed much digital acumen

Ahead of his appearance on Capitol Hill, Mark Zuckerberg spent several days preparing with outside consultants and a Washington DC law firm.

So adamant he was to be ready for any question that might get thrown his way, and so insistent was he to appear charming and contrite, his team even arranged a mock session, with members of staff filling the roles of senators.

As it was, the man who kept reminding everyone how he started a company now valued at $80bn in his college dorm room, may have been better off asking his grandparents, or else someone’s elderly relatives.

During a session involving 44 senators from two different committees, time and again it appeared those questioning him had only a vague grasp on the subject matter. Some seemed utterly clueless, and yet that did not stop them from grandstanding during their five minutes of questioning.

Orrin Hatch, an 84-year-old Republican from Utah, was among those accused of exposing the generational divide when he asked the Facebook boss about the possibility of a paid service that would enable users to not see any adverts. This is something the company’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, mentioned recently.

Mr Zuckerberg insisted there would always be a free version of Facebook. Mr Hatch asked how he could sustain a business without charging anything for it. “Sir, we run ads,” Zuckerberg explained gently. Hatch replied: “I see.”

Lindsey Graham, who did ask Zuckerberg one decent question about what Facebook was doing to counter hate speech on its platform in Myanmar – one of the few times the 33-year-old seemed to have to think - asked if he believed Facebook was a monopoly.

To push his example, the South Carolina senator sought to compare social media to the car industry. “If I buy a Ford, and it doesn’t work well, and I don’t like it, I can buy a Chevy. If I’m upset with Facebook, what’s the equivalent product I can go sign up for?”

Zuckerberg sought to suggest he was not comparing like with like. Asked if Facebook operated a monopoly, he replied: “It doesn’t feel that way to me.”

Roy Blunt, a Republican senator from Missouri, asked whether Facebook friends were really friends. He then mentioned his grandson, Charlie, who he said was an avid user of Instagram. In a question that may have been penned for him his staff, Mount then asked about the possibility of cross-device tracking, even when devices are not used to access Facebook.

“There may be some data necessary to provide the service that we do, that’s something that I would like to follow up with you on,” Zuckerberg said.

Perhaps the toughest questions came from Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell, one of the few politicians present with a background as a tech executive.

She asked several points about tech company Palantir, and whether it scraped Facebook data. Zuckerberg said he did not know. (She did not spell out that tech billionaire Peter Thiel, a major backer of Palantir, is a Facebook board member.)

Yet crucially, nobody pressed Zuckerberg hard about the issue of whether Facebook and other similar platforms should face tougher government regulation. Indeed, many of them seemed pleased when he “agreed” to help draft legislation they wished to pass.

Midway through the afternoon, apparently concerned about their guest’s stamina, Senator John Thune suggested a break.

“We can keep going,” Zuckerberg said to laughter “Maybe 15 minutes?”