Of policies that can identify all of the dimpt types of harms. Underbanked, whether or not you intend to have libra and your weve talked about a number digital wallet registered in today. Each of those countries so that terrorism, child exploitation, there would be regulatory oversight. Because we have found a lot of health missi individuals we have payday health misinformation. Lenders who say were interested in the underbanked we now have more than 35,000 people at the company wo work on o safety and security overall. Were interested in those that are not banked we spend billions of dollars a year on this our budget on safety and security is now greate the compy and those individuals who are supposed to pay more than when we went public in 2012 so a anybody else weve got institutions here, big effort i believe that it should not sit on any one companys shoulders to make so many important minority depository decisions about speech so one of the things that ive institutions and if you want to show that tried to focus on doing is youre doing the right thing, then with all of the money that you have, you can do it here in building an independent the United States and other Oversight Board that will consist oaf people with diverse places also. Backgrounds and views and is so that is an answer that you global, but will value freedom should know, and i would urge you to go back and find out. Of expression and this group will be able to make final and i would almost guess that binding decisions on what theres zero dollars there content stays up and comes down on facebook that even i or our team wont be able to overrule you should thereby then look at so it will create a check and your policy and change it, because action speaks much balance and oversight of our louder than words. Companys operations and you do have a trust factor extra kate yourself from that from the body that you would i mean i met with a lot of your investors who are pulling out of libra. Created . The way we are setting this lets just look at the news, up is that we will appoint the first set of cochairs for the body and we hope to do this in because whats most important to the next few months. Me is our democracy. And democracies around the wo d then they will nominate a set of other members and we will joint aly gree on them once the board is up and running, it will nominate and world. You tell me, when you look around the world, it seems to me refill itself so we will not be involved in the selection that facebook was a celebrant of process after that thank you the gentleman from k california, mr. Tip ton, is recognized for five minutes. Many of the destructive policies thank you, madame chair today. For example, 2016 russia mr. Zuckerberg, a number of my interferes with u. S. Elections colleagues, im over here to youve admitted you were caught your left. On your heels. There you are the question is what has been okay. And what will be done for 2020 but theyve expressed some brexit, another big issue around consideration that needs to be the world. Taken in in regards of the misinformation and divisions perspective payments industry within the Libra Association attempts at division and misinformation across north as youre well aware, a number america and Europe Facebook has been systemically of businesses are extensive experience in International Found at the scene of the crime. Payments, mastercard, visa, have do you think thats just a pulled out of that association would you view b facebook as an expert in the payments industry . Coincidence . Congressman, were not sir . Well, congressman, we operate traditionally primarily a payments company, but the person in almost every country in the world except for china and north whos running the kai libra subsidiary for us, was president korea, so i think we would be in almost every country where different activities are of paypal before, which is one happening. One thing that you mentioned of the great payments companies, before that i agree with is so we certainly have other there are a lot of predatory Financial Experts on the Management Team and board at the financial organizations. Company. We ban payday lenders and a lot of folks like that from using our platform for ads as well certainly were not interested in youve indicated that youll not only banning, you have the wherewithal, because if be looking for approval to make sure facebook for its part these mdis had the money, then within the association will they would be able to put the product, because these folks continue to r participate. If the association cant satisfy those regular laces with the need access to capital and Financial Institutions u. S. Regulations are in lace, im out of time. Will kai libra pull out of the association . Congressman, the short answer thank you the gentleman from florida, mr. Would be yes posey, is recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair and if we. Ranking member mchenry for holding this very informative hearing. For many of us, facebook is a reality in our business and our personal lives i communicate with my so a posh of this you would constituents as well as my friends through the platform pull out daily. Many benefits accrue from the weve been watching Mark Zuckerberg testifying on capitol service, yet in the midst of these great benefits, great hill for the better part of a couple of hours now. Challenges have emerged. Weaver going to continue to monitor that let me welcome you to the halftime repo i want to welcome you to this halftime report. Im scott wapner hearing. Mr. Zuckerberg, i believe facebook is a Great Innovation front and center, more Major Companies reporting today that has much potential for several stocks are moving. Well discuss which you should good, that we welcomed an own and which you should avoid innovation together with the controversies that it spawned. Its 12 00 noon. This is the halftime report. Unfortunately, some in politics a big miss for boeing and t and the media see their role as cajoling facebook to censor its users speech. In april i wrote you i was cats earnings getting crushed but both Stocks Holding up what is signalling and the next move for your money . Disappointed facebook would Mark Zuckerber consider restricting free speech rights communicated with the risks associated with vaccinations i support vaccinations of children and adults but i also support open and frank communication of the risks of vaccination. Every person should make vaccination decisions with full information. In recognition of the uncertainties, the risk of vaccinations, the federal government has created a federal vaccination trust fund that has paid out over 4 billion to compensate those who have been injured by vaccinations. There is no more clear or persuasive statement that the risks associated with vaccinations than the existence and the payment record of that fund from time to time medical research has established case and context of specific risks associated with vaccinations i wrote you and another member of the house made claims that the risk of vaccinations should not exist and facebook should Police Communications related to the vaccination risks. Today you testified you believe in giving people a voice mr. Zuckerberg, is facebook able to assure us that it will support users fair and open discussions and Communications Related to the risks as well as the benefits of vaccinations congressman, thanks for the question we do care deeply about giving people a voice and freedom of expression those are some of the founding values of the company. At the same time, we also hear consistently from our community that people want us to stop the spread of misinformation so what we do is we try to focus on misinformation that has the potential to lead to physical harm or imminent harm. That can include especially Misleading Health advice there is a hoax that was going viral a number of months back saying lets stick to this subject because our time is very limited. Are you 100 confident that vaccines pose no injury to any person on this planet . Congressman, i dont think it would be possible for anyone to be 100 confident. But my understanding of the Scientific Consensus is that it is important that people get their vaccines but you said your platform, you want to you believe in giving people a voice. Doesnt somebody shouldnt somebody have the opportunity to express an opinion different from yours over 4 billion has been paid out by the fund. Over thousands of people dont think people should have information to make an informed choice congressman, i do thats why we dont stop people from posting on their page something thats wrong if someone wants to post vaccine antivaccination content or if they want to join a group where people are discussing that content, we dont prevent them from do that. What we do is we dont go out of our way to make sure our Group Recommendation systems try to show people or encourage people to join those groups we discourage that. Okay. How do you discourage it well, there are a number of different tactics. For example, if someone is typing in into the search box something that might lead to aengt antivax content, we dont recommend antivax content were not going to recommend or go out of our way to show people content that would encourage people to join those groups. But people can share that content if they want. Many people harmed by this policy are in fact parents with disabled children and i dont think we or you should be so quick to turn our backs on them. If you look at the statistics, i think youre making a bad mistake. My time has expired, i yield back thank you. Thank you very much the next gentleman from california is mr. Sherman. And today is his birthday. Happy birthday, mr. Sherman, you are recognized for five minutes. You dont get any more just because its your birthday donald trump said Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including the drug trade. I ask unanimous consent to put in a report by rand talking about crypto currencies use by terrorists hopefully without objection. Without objection, such is the order. Im not here to be antifacebook. I was anticryptocurrency back when you were anticryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency either doesnt work, in which case investors lose a lot of money, or it does achieve its objectives perhaps and displaces the u. S. Dollar as the or interferes with the u. S. Dollar being the sole reserve currency, virtually the sole reserve currency in the world. That role of the u. S. Dollar saves the average American Family 1,000 in interest costs because money pours into the United States baufecause of the role of the dollar we in Congress Spending because of the power of the u. S. Dollar. The u. S. Dollar is an excellent currency as a means of account it serves all the needs except its really bad for tax evaders, drug dealers, terrorists and that unmet need can be met by new currency. If we make drug dealers just 10 more effective, how Many American deaths is that over the next decade . Does it compare to the deaths we experience from terrorism . Well have to see. But those who are introducing cryptocurrency have got to pause and wonder what effect they will have on the power of the United States to impose sanctions right now turkey is stopping at 20 miles into syria, not because of u. S. Troops were out. But because of u. S. Sanctions, because of the role of the u. S. Dollar we stand to lose all that because cryptocurrency is the currency of the crypto patriot ms. Velasquez pointed out your lawyers are going to show theres a loophole in a 1940 Investment Company act that gets you where you want to go and the regulators cant stop you and youre going to call that Regulatory Approval as if the people in 1940 knew what you had in mind. What you made clear is that you will go forward unless Donald Trumpappointed regulators stop you. And you will go forward if you can just find loopholes in statutes, but youll deploy a horde of lobbyists to prevent us from writing a new statute ms. Maloney asked you a question that you forgot. You still forgot to answer it, but lets be clear youre going to be making powerful burglary tools and letting your Business Partners commit the burglary. You are going with all the power of facebook to try to create a new currency youre going to call it the libra, but youre the person behind it. Thats why i call it the zuck buck you are going to create it and then say, oh, its our Business Partners your white paper says your Business Partners are going to use your tool to have anonymous accounts then you have the gall to come here and say youre going to follow all the know your customer how do you know your customer with an anonymous account . Then mr. Meeks calls your bluff on this idea that you are creating a Payment System for the poor and unbanked. The poor and unbanked need pesos, they need dollars that they can buy something at a local store. Youve done no effort to help the unbanked anywhere else at any other time and you should you should create a Payment System with a close to zero fee. But the real money is in the tax evaders and to some extent the drug dealers youve got at least a hundred lawyers that will tell you that what youre doing is legal and that you will be safe. But given the harm that this can do, they could be very wrong and if this explodes the way it might, especially you will not be able to hide behind the idea that you didnt create the libra organization, that its just your Business Partners that have wallets designed for drug dealers and terrorists i have a few more things to say, but for the richest man in the world to come here and hide behind the poorest people in the world and say thats who youre really trying to help, youre trying to help those for whom the dollar is not a good currency, drug dealers, terrorists, tax evaders. Thank you the gentleman from missouri is recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair and welcome mr. Zuckerberg i certainly admire you as an innovator and entrepreneur youve taken advantage of Economic Freedom of this country and i admire that. I think thats fantastic but you now are trying to get into a different world here with your libra experience here you know, in the past youve been dealing with Communication Systems where people have been able to Exchange Everything from retail information to personal information and it was kind of buyer beware in the retail world. But in the financial world, people transact business because they can trust that the transactions will be secure from the standpoint of the stability of the dollar and whatever theyre exchanging their money in the secrecy of the activity. Theres Consumer Protection as well as not being able to do things in an illegal fashion so thattakes a lot of regulation as youre finding out, regulation is an important part of the Financial Services world to be able to give people those kinds of protections and earn that trust so youve indicated already that you want to conform to the regulation to be able to do this and earn that trust. Can you continue to the first question is can you continue to innovate and be able to make the changes to this product as it needs to be to be able to conform to the regulation and still make this work do you believe that can happen congressman, i currently do i think well have to see how this process plays out but i do sitting here today. Are you willing to stop this project if you see that it cant go forward anymore congressman, i will certainly stop facebooks part of it the independent Libra Association is a separate thing that exists at this point. If i feel like facebook cant be a part of it in keeping with the principles that ive laid out, then facebook wont be a part of it i want to followup on mr. Shermans line of questioning with regard to the reserve currency what effect did you think that you get implemented libra implemented here that this would have on the reserve status of the u. S. Dollar . Congressman, because the reserve will be primarily u. S. Dollars, i actually think that a project like this could be important for extending americas Financial Leadership to the contrary of the risks that are being pointed out we have to be careful about all of the risks around Financial Stability and there are certain regulators who oversee that and were also mindful of that we want to do something that strengthens americas leadership but i just think that we cant sit here and assume that because today america is a leader that we get to be the leader if we dont innovate innovation means doing new things new things have risks and we need to address the risks and we need to be careful in doing that i personally worry that if we dont do things like this, whether its this project or others like it, eventually we lose our leadership. I appreciate the fact that youre pointing out that china is already doing this. That means if were going to allow them to play in this area, we need to be looking at it as well and i think right now 50 of the currencies that are in the basket here that they use to set the value of this is the dollar, is that correct . Congressman, i dont know if thats been fully finalized, but i think the principle will be that it will primarily be the u. S. Dollar. What happened whenever the board of calibra decides that the chinese yuan because of the economy looks to be a very Stable Currency and a growing currency and importance in the world and suddenly they diminish our amount down to onethird of the value of the basket of currencies and now the yuan is onethird and now we have a real big problem from the standpoint that currency that is being utilized most around the world is the libra and we are only onethird of that. That to me is concerning does that concern you at all, the association can set this and we would have nothing about it and it would be a negative effect on our position congressman, that is certainly something that i think we should look at up front i cant speak for the independent association on this, but i think it would be completely reasonable for our regulators to have a restriction that says that it has to be primarily u. S. Dollars. One more quick question what is the advantage of facebook to be involved in libra . Sorry, what is the advantage of having facebook be involved here your company, facebook, to be involved in libra. What is the end game for you to realize a benefit from this . Congressman, we build some of the most widely used messaging services around the world. Whatsapp and facebook messenger. The vision here is to make it so that people can send money to each other as easily and securely and cheaply as it is to send a text message. So i think that sending money would be a very useful utility to add for people around the world in addition to the messaging products that we have. Thank you very much. Gentleman from missouri, whos also the chair for the subcommittee on housing, Community Development and insurance is recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Mr. Zuckerberg, the housing rights initiative, a d. C. Based Watchdog Group and aggrieved d. C. Woman have recently filed human rights complaints in d. C. And maryland against seven major Housing Companies who are accused of using facebooks ad targeting tools to deny prospective tenants the ability to see housing based on their age, which is a protected class under local fair housing laws. The lawsuit also alleges that facebooks algorithm disproportionately showed the ads to younger users mr. Zuckerberg, do you agree to comply with any potential subpoenas and document requests facebook might receive seeking information about how Housing Companies have discriminated i imagine that if its a valid subpoena, we will certainly comply with it. Our legal team will. Will facebook agree to produce information about the algorithm it uses to decide which ads users receive . Congressman, for a bit of background here, it has always been against our policies for people to use any of our products, especially our ad products, to discriminate. We recently, as you know, entered into a settlement with the aclu and other civil Rights Groups to remove certain targeting features from advertising so that way if youre doing targeting for housing, employment or Credit Opportunities, you cant target based on age or gender or zip code we also limited the number of interspace targeting options available as well. But for so many years your company engaged in that kind of conduct. Was that because it was a lack of awareness as far as your employees are concerned, as far as having any sensitivity to inclusion, diversity and nondiscrimination . Congressman, its always been against our policies for anyone to use the ad systems to discriminate we enforce those policies through a mix of technical systems and human review when this complaint was filed by the aclu and others, we were able to reach a settlement that we thought would strengthen our policies and our products and help them uphold the principles that we care about and have always been committed to on this part of this is also agreeing to study further the effects of how the algorithm works and what it shows. One of the challenges that we have here that i think is worth calling out is that we dont collect data on the race or ethnicity of people who use facebook so that is somewhat of a challenge in trying to study whether they are disparate impacts. Its an open question from my perspective whether one would want us to collect race data on the people who use our services but thats one of the questions well need to figure out as we study this further. Let me follow up with that and ask despite facebooks commitments to address civil rights, there is no one in facebooks Senior Leadership with substantial civil rights experience why is this . Congressman, this is certainly something we care about a lot. We have people at the company that have worked on civil rights recently we started this civil rights audit thats being led by very established folks in the civil rights movement. Sheryl sandberg, our coo, is personally leading a Civil Rights Task force that we formalized inside the company to make sure that we implement suggestions from the audit and to make sure this receives senior attention at the company. Is the audit independent . Is it independent or is it from within the company congressman, yes, the audit is independent it is being done by laura murphy, who i think is an established leader in this space. Are they allowed to publicly report whatever problems they find congressman, yes. The reports that they are making as part of the audit will be public i think that they have already published some things. Do you have a right to limit what is said publicly about the audit . Congressman, im not sure the answer to that i think at a high level the answer would be no, but there may be some specific things around if there is individuals private data or business confidential data or Something Like that where they might not publish it but broadly speaking theyre going to be able to publish what they believe and what they find. Thank you so much i yield back. The gentleman from michigan is recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Mr. Zuckerberg, you have accomplished something that nobody thought was possible. Brad sherman, chairman waters and others use tweets by the president to support their position i never thought i would see the day, but here we are you have taken the puzzle pieces of politics, shaken up the box, thrown them out on the table and everybody is trying to figure out where they fit when it comes to facebook and when it comes to this technology use. I dont fault you for what your tool has become because i do believe it is a tool i want to explore that a little bit, but first my question is what share of calibra is facebook i know its an Association Im sorry, of libra is facebook . Its an association that youve referenced do you own half of it . Is it equal shares among all the partners david marcus, who had been at facebook, is heading up calibra. Is it one and the same is Calibra Facebook . Okay, congressman, there are two organizations here theres the independent Libra Association. Thats what im wanting to get to know. Which is a nonprofit, so its not a forprofit entity. Heres what im trying to get at how does the voting go is it what david marcus says, is it what Facebook Says or you can be overruled by others in the association . Thats correct. Right now there are 21 companies and nonprofits there are a lot more that want to join. Each company and Nonprofit Organization thats a member has one vote in electing the board right now there are five Board Members. David marcus is one of the Board Members but is not running calibra. Well, hes been here, in fact sat where you sat. Sorry, i just misspoke. Hes not running libra he is running calibra, which is facebooks payment subsidiary. But we are looking for the Libra Association is recruiting an independent director and david is not even on the Search Committee for that. Okay. So heres i asked him the question, because it had been put forward that switzerland was where you were going to domicile this or the association was going to domicile. He had said that he had been talking to the swiss regulators. The swiss regulators said that he hadnt been talking to them and that the association hadnt been talking to them so id like you to clarify that. Have you been talking to the swiss regulators congressman, yes. The misunderstanding was i believe that he and the team had been working with the primary swiss financial regulator, finma, and now we are also working with the data regulator, which is going to be relevant to this project. You say you worked with 30 different jurisdictions in examining this can you provide us with a list of the regulators that you have talked to . Congressman, i can get back to you with the full list if thats helpful. Its not a trick question just want to know that id also like to know which u. S. Regulators you have been talking to congressman, are you asking about me personally or our team . Well, you use the royal we on page three of your testimony. Im assuming that its not you specifically, im assuming its you and your team. But i want to know who facebook and calibra and libra have all been talking to in the u. S. , because i think one of the questions that i have is why switzerland and why not the u. S. , a little bit as the Ranking Member had started to go down and i want to move quickly on that, though but will you get me a list of those u. S. Regulators . Yes. Okay, great thank you. Heres the real crux you said that you wont launch without u. S. Regulator approval. What happens if the association decides to launch despite that congressman, then i believe we would be forced to leave the association. I would hope that with our that the association will weigh our recommendation and what we say publicly, that we think should happen, but if at the end of the day we dont receive the clearances that we feel like we need to move forward and the association chooses to move forward without us, then we will be in a position where we will not be part of the association. My remaining 30 seconds here, as i said, i believe facebook is a tool i believe cryptocurrency and libra is a tool. I believe all technology is a tool its a neutral tool, just like a car or a plane, a gun, a knife, all of which have been used as weapons, for nefarious things at times and all of things which have been used to benefit. These various tools, though, in associati society are regulated. All of our concern about Child Sexual Exploitation or others, you need to help us understanding where the line between peoples First Amendment rights, yours, mine, all of societys lie and the safety of our society regardless of the platform or tool so id like to continue that conversation at some point the gentleman from georgia, mr. Scott, is recognized for five minutes mr. Zuckerberg, thank you for joining us today back during the 1960s and 70s, Congress Passed a series of laws intended to stamp out discrimination in lending and housing. And both republicans and democrats in Congress Worked together and passed legislation like the Community Reinvestment act and the Fair Housing Act and the equal credit opportunity act. All of these laws were designed to target and stop discrimination in the sale and advertising of housing, and particularly red lining. Red lining is a series of practices, of cordoning off certain groups of people by race, by geographic area, and systematically refusing to lend to those communities and were even suffering right today from the aftershock of these practices. Now, its my understanding their gender or age, but also by indirectly targeting their education, their interests, their location, their income in its investigation, hud, our federal housing agency, found that your platform allowed advertisers to restrict certain users from viewing ads on your platform and you have even enabled the practice of this dreaded red lining of certain communities restricting them from housing and Employment Opportunities you were charged with this by our federal agency that protects our housing and lending laws mr. Zuckerberg, we in congress have worked hard for the past 50 years to eliminate the very Racial Discrimination practices that your platform is guilty of. On your platform you screen for and you prevent all sorts of criminal activities, such as sex trafficking, drug trafficking, even as you mentioned a few minutes ago, you outlaw payday lending, terrorism, illegal drugs. Why dont you prevent red lining which is also illegal and criminal as well congressman, we do now. Our policies have always been to that discrimination is not allowed. We recently entered into a settlement with civil Rights Groups, aclu and others, and fha sorry, nfha, to remove certain categories from our targeting, including age, gender and zip code. You say to remove its implemented. You havent said we have removed. Theres a difference. My understanding is this is this is already implemented. If im incorrect on that, i will get back to you quickly and update you but my understanding is that that is already in effect. But mr. Zuckerberg, i have here huds report. It clearly says that your platform allows advertisers to restrict certain users from viewing ads on your platform and you have even enabled the practice of red lining certain communities. What is your answer . I mean what was your response to hud . Have you put things in practice to eliminate this . Well, congressman, i think at the beginning of the discussion with hud and some of these groups that i just referenced, we entered into a settlement with the civil Rights Groups to create a new standard where we block that kind of targeting i think its worth noting that the standard that we set is industry leading i dont think any of the other internet platforms restrict the kind of targeting that we do for these categories, but i think that doing so helps us uphold the principles around preventing discrimination, so im happy and supportive and glad that were doing that thank you, mr. Zuckerberg the gentleman from ohio, mr. Stivers, is recognized fortes. Thank you, madam chairman mr. Zurg, good morning how are you . Im doing okay. I understand. That was honest, thank you first i want to say i appreciate innovation and we need innovation in america. No innovation is going to be perfect. To the questions that the gentleman was just asking, i want to let you maybe clarify a little bit if i want to advertise housing on facebook today, can i use age, sex and zip code to target people today as we sit here . Congressman, i believe the answer to that is no. Thank you im right on this all right. Just confirmed with my team as well that is fully implemented. You cannot do that today. Yes those options are no longer in the system for housing, employment or Credit Opportunities advertising. And nobody wants to red line and im sure that was accidental, but i want to talk about calibra a little bit because i am concerned about the establishment of a private currency that is used for transactions because i think it does undermine other currencies in the world theres 195 countries, two of them sovereign countries, two dont have currencies so 193 countries that you are opening yourselves up to regulation from why not just pick another currency facebook youre going to make money through the transmission of the of whatever it is. Its not about what currency why did you think you had to create a private currency . And i guess i would ask you to maybe go back to your folks and think about whether the pain youre going to have in creating a private currency is worth it why create a private currency . Why not just pick a currency and use that as part of your Payment System. Sure. Thanks, congressman. The goal of libra is to build a global Payment System rather than a currency. Because it is global in nature, we figured that it might be better to not solely rely on one countrys currency but because were an American Company and because the American Economy is the strongest in the world, it makes sense for any reserve to be primarily u. S. Dollars and extend americas Financial Leadership in that way. But like youre saying, we clearly have not locked down exactly how this is going to work yet i personally am much more focused on being able to help innovate and build a global Payment System than i am in any specific makeup of what a currency or reserve might look like and i think that theres already some discussion about whether it might make sense to build the kind of digital Payment System that were talking about based on individual sovereign currencies rather than a kind of combined combination of these currencies into some new one so thats something thats already being considered. Great and i think youll finding that the bank secrecy act, antiMoney Laundering, all those things are going to be really hard with the Digital Currency ultimately you may find a sovereign country that creates a Digital Currency that you could then use or you could do it based on several stable currencies around the world. If youre in europe you can pick one and in the americas you can pick one, whatever but there are a lot of people around the world who need what youre talking about this crossborder opportunity to efficiently send money back and forth in countries where theres no Stable Currency think about venezuela for a second the venezuelan bolivar is worth nothing. There are countries with no Stable Currency and there are millions of people in the world who are hoping that your Innovation Works but i think you may have bitten off more than you can chew by trying to create a private currency so i would ask you, and i know youre already looking at it, but i hope youll think about that because you can make a difference frankly, you can have a Payment System without creating that private currency i think youll find that the compliance with the individual laws, whether its antiMoney Laundering, bank secrecy act, sanctions, all those things will be easier to do if you use an existing sovereign currency. So i would just ask you to think about that you can comment if you want, to but i wanted to use my time to ask you to think about those things congressman, thank you. I think that those discussions, my understanding are already happening. Some of them are happening publicly i think there have been some Public Comments on this. I just want to reaffirm what youre saying about how this could be valuable to people around the world we serve more than 2 billion people around the world. We serve a lot of people in the United States, but there arent 2 billion people here, so most of the people we serve are in countries that have developing economies that i think could really benefit from this. The gentleman from texas, mr. Green, whos also the chair for the subcommittee on oversight and investigations is recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. I thank the Ranking Member as well i thank the witness for being here today sir, is it true that the Libra Association oversees the libra project . Congressman, yes. And is it true that Global Corporations make up the association . Congressman, the association is made of today 21 companies and Nonprofit Organizations as well of the 21, how many are headed by women . Congressman, i do not know the answer to that off the top of my head but i can get it for you. Well, i believe you can get it, mr. Zuckerberg, but one would assume that you would know who heads these corporations that are going to be running this global company. How many of them are minorities, mr. Zuckerberg congressman, i do not know off the top of my head are there any members of the lgbtq plus Community Associated with this association, mr. Zuckerberg congressman, i dont know the answer. Who acknowledged there are many people who acknowledge they are a part of the community. You do not know . Mr. Zuckerberg, is it true that the overwhelming majority of persons associated with this endeavor are white men congressman, i dont know off the top of my head the list of the people who are running the organizations in the association. Is it true that one would have to have 10 million to become a part, aside from other qualities, to become a part of the association . Congressman, i believe that was the initial idea, but i dont think that that has been locked down yet. Well, isnt it true that persons have already bought into the association and paid 10 million . Congressman, i do not believe that has happened yet. Well, i spoke to your person who manages calibra and he indicated that he is one of the holders of a post with the association. Is he incorrect . Congressman, youre right that david marcus, who runs the calibra subsidiary for facebook is facebooks delegate to this independent association. The question i was answering is i dont know if the organizations that are members of the association have yet contributed any Financial Support for the organization well, i must say that i would assume that you would have the answers, but i would greatly appreciate it if you would share this with me because i plan to share it with the public the public needs to know whether this is an organization that is truly diverse or whether it is an organization that is owned and operated by a small group of persons, all of whom have similar characteristics for want of better terminology. Now, let me share this with you quickly. This does not apply to you, mr. Zuckerberg, but you need to know why theres a good deal of consternation. There was a man whose name was bernie madoff. Mr. Bernie madoff was the chair of the nasdaq. He had all of the trappings of being a successful, responsible person hes now serving 150 years in prison his ponzi scheme involved some 64. 8 billion. The people who are for free markets bought into this ponzi scheme they were laissezfaire. Once they lost their money, they made their way to us and they wanted us to make them whole this is why we have to be concerned, not because youre a bernie madoff. I want the press to clearly understand im not saying this, that you are, but because things can happen things can go wrong. And when they do, we are the people who have to make them right. I yield back the balance of my time, madam chair. Thank you. The gentleman from kentucky, mr. Barr, is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Zuckerberg, welcome to the Financial Services committee. Criticism is cheap anybody can criticize. As you can see here today, politicians in washington are pretty good at lodging criticism. But creating something of value is significantly more difficult. And i would commend you for being an innovator and trying to create something of value. It seems like in washington whenever the private sector produces some type of innovation or new advancement, politicians rush in to criticize or regulate in an era when some politicians even on this committee are openly embracing socialism and central planning, it seems like the presumption is always that private Sector Innovation is a bad thing. I think that presumption should be reversed. We in congress should view innovation for its potential opportunities for inclusion, reducing friction in transactions, aiding Small Business and bringing the Financial System to unbanked and underbanked communities. Thats not to say we shouldnt ask questions which is what were doing today but in america a country built on Free Enterprise and capitalism, its always better to be on the side of innovation and we should always place the burden on the government to justify regulation and intervention now, i was very interested in your testimony, mr. Zuckerberg, when you alluded to the risks of not innovating and the danger of u. S. The u. S. Falling behind some other countries or Foreign Companies who are creating similar platforms. Will you elaborate on the initiatives in those other countries . Yes, congressman, thanks for the opportunity. You know, today as soon as we put out this white paper on libra, what we saw was in china especially they immediately kicked off this Publicprivate Partnership with some of their Biggest Companies in order to race to try to build a system like this quickly, a digital one, that they could use as part of their belt and road initiative, their foreign and Economic Policy to grow influence throughout asia and africa and other areas and theyre planning on launching this in the next few months. I would say i think amlbsa issues is important when were talking about libra and calibra, but i think the american competitiveness angle and the competition with china is a National Security issue and the fact that facebook and the Libra Association is launching into innovation i think is a positiv think positive for our National Security mr. Zuckerberg, imt to commend you on statements you made on free speech and the First Amendment. I was happy to hear you say you will quote continue to stand for Free Expression understanding its messiness but believing the longer journey is things that challenge us i remember what jon stewart wrote and i would commend it to my colleagues and my friend the chairwoman mr. Mill wrote quote if all mankind minus one were of one opinion and only one person of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he if he had the power would be justified in silencing mankind and thissentiment is important and relevant to facebook especially in todays age of political correctness, accusations of offensive speech, safe places and the dramatic polarization of the political discourse. I find it highly troubling that politicians are trying to bully you to be a fact checker and to be the Speech Police especially in politics at the core of the First Amendment. And so along those lines, imt to ask you a question about sensorship and whatever Fact Checking board youre delegating these responsibilities to. Will you commit that facebook will not sensor any political ad placed on your platform or in support of President Donald Trump . Congressman, my commitment on this is that or the principle at least here is that we believe that people should be able to see r for themselves what politicians are saying that doesnt just go for trump that goes for any of the candidates for any of our National Offices people need to be b able to see for for themselves and make judgments on what the candidates are saying and their character i applaud you for that and i dont want you to be bullied by politicians to relinquish our treasured free speech, protect it and dont be bullied by polit s politicians who want to sensor speech i yield back the gentleman from missouri, mr. Cleaver, is recognized for five minutes thank you, madame chair, mr. Zuckerberg for being here today. In response to a letter that i sent to f sock i was told that unclear whether u. S. And foreign regulators will have the ability to monitor libra and require any kind of corrective actions and at the same time, if u. S. And International Regulators are as theyve said in the, my letter, to me, unaware if they have the ability to monitor your network and then protect against Money Laundering and terror financing. How are you going to get over the regulatory hurdles if theyre already saying that and what happens if regulators throw up their hands and say that we cannot guarantee the soundness of this product . Thank you, congressman. So there are two parts of the process here the first is what we and the rest of the association are trying to do to design this system so that it eliminates those risks and the second is the process of working with the regulator on their concerns and questions to make sure it meets approval on the former, the key part of this is that the system will be fully backed one to one in the reserve by a a mix of cash and highly liquid assets so that sets it in contrast to the way most banks work with a fractional ver aal reserve here, everything will be back to one to one so in theory, that shouldnt be possible. Now in practice, i get that you know sometimes there are additional risks beyond what the theory says should be possible so we need to work with the regulator to work through their questions and concerns and make sure that we are operating at the highest level of rigor for Financial Stability. Thats why my commitment is that were not going to launch the libra Payment System here or anywhere else around the world until we get the approval from f sock and the other relevant u. S. Financial regulators i was e plopleased to hear yt