April Glaser writes:
When Democrats and Republicans in Congress agree on something, it usually involves symbolic acts of patriotism or minimally decent acts of disaster relief. Add to that list: giving Mark Zuckerberg the third degree—and insisting that his company face some kind of consequence for the Cambridge Analytica scandal and how cavalierly it has often treated its users’ data. “I think it is time to ask whether Facebook may have moved too fast and broken too many things,” Rep. Greg Walden, a Republican from Oregon, said last Wednesday as he opened up a House committee hearing with Zuckerberg. “I don’t want to vote to have to regulate Facebook, but by God I will,” said Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, during a Senate joint committee hearing the day before the House’s. Democrats sounded even more gung-ho about cracking down on the company. “This incident demonstrates yet again that our laws are not working,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New Jersey. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat from Illinois, laid it out plainly while dressing down the 33-year-old CEO: “This is proof to me that self-regulation simply does not work.”
Read more on Slate. April asks why the pre-eminent privacy advocacy organizations have not proposed anything or even pressured Congress to take action. It’s an interesting question.
When you’ve read her article, read the responses to it on Twitter.