Skip to main content

Get your popcorn ready. Zuckerberg is set to testify before Congress again

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be back in Washington D.C. to testify before Congress once again, this time in support of the platform’s Libra cryptocurrency.

Zuckerberg will be testifying as the sole witness in a U.S. House Committee of Financial Services hearing on October 23 titled “An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors.” The hearing is regarding Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency, Libra, and digital wallet, Calibra. 

Recommended Videos

The session will focus on whether the cryptocurrency would operate as a rival to the U.S. dollar and if it poses any privacy, trading, national security, or monetary policy concerns. At a July hearing, a bill was drafted bearing the title, “Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act” to address these concerns. 

“The draft legislation prohibits large platform utilities, like Facebook, from becoming chartered, licensed, or registered as a U.S. financial institution (e.g. like taxpayer-backed banks, investment funds, and stock exchanges) or otherwise becoming affiliated with such financial institutions,” a press release from the U.S. House Committee of Financial Services says. 

Digital Trends reached out to Facebook for a comment on the upcoming hearing but a Facebook spokesperson told CNET in a statement, “Mark looks forward to testifying before the House Financial Services Committee and responding to lawmakers’ questions.”

Facebook has been trying to launch its own cryptocurrency, but the chances of it happening appear to be growing slimmer. Last week, Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal were all reconsidering their involvement in Facebook’s scheme following regulatory scrutiny from lawmakers in both the U.S. and Europe. PayPal decided to end its participation in the Libra Association. 

There are worries that the currency could be used in money laundering operations, and also that Facebook in launching the cryptocurrency may be trying to circumvent national and international financial regulations. But the biggest concern in practical terms is whether it is realistic or achievable for a company with a privacy record generously described as “spotty” to launch its own currency.

Zuckerberg was also at the capital last month to try to win Congress over despite his company’s many privacy mishaps. According to reports, Zuckerberg met with policymakers behind closed doors — likely trying to make a few more friends in Congress in the wake of harsh bipartisan criticism of both Facebook and Zuckerberg himself.

Allison Matyus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…
Google just gave vision to AI, but it’s still not available for everyone
Gemini Live App on the Galaxy S25 Ultra broadcast to a TV showing the Gemini app with the camera feature open

Google has just officially announced the roll out of a powerful Gemini AI feature that means the intelligence can now see.

This started in March as Google began to show off Gemini Live, but it's now become more widely available.

Read more
This modular Pebble and Apple Watch underdog just smashed funding goals
UNA Watch

Both the Pebble Watch and Apple Watch are due some fierce competition as a new modular brand, UNA, is gaining some serous backing and excitement.

The UNA Watch is the creation of a Scottish company that wants to give everyone modular control of smartwatch upgrades and repairs.

Read more
Tesla, Warner Bros. dodge some claims in ‘Blade Runner 2049’ lawsuit, copyright battle continues
Tesla Cybercab at night

Tesla and Warner Bros. scored a partial legal victory as a federal judge dismissed several claims in a lawsuit filed by Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind the 2017 sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit accused the two companies of using imagery from the film to promote Tesla’s autonomous Cybercab vehicle at an event hosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood in October of last year.
U.S. District Judge George Wu indicated he was inclined to dismiss Alcon’s allegations that Tesla and Warner Bros. violated trademark law, according to Reuters. Specifically, the judge said Musk only referenced the original Blade Runner movie at the event, and noted that Tesla and Alcon are not competitors.
"Tesla and Musk are looking to sell cars," Reuters quoted Wu as saying. "Plaintiff is plainly not in that line of business."
Wu also dismissed most of Alcon's claims against Warner Bros., the distributor of the Blade Runner franchise.
However, the judge allowed Alcon to continue its copyright infringement claims against Tesla for its alleged use of AI-generated images mimicking scenes from Blade Runner 2049 without permission.
Alcan says that just hours before the Cybercab event, it had turned down a request from Tesla and WBD to use “an icononic still image” from the movie.
In the lawsuit, Alcon explained its decision by saying that “any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
Alcon further said it did not want Blade Runner 2049 “to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”
But according to Alcon, Tesla went ahead with feeding images from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to yield a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds during the Cybercab event. With the image featured in the background, Musk directly referenced Blade Runner.
Alcon also said that Musk’s reference to Blade Runner 2049 was not a coincidence as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”

Read more