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Zuckerberg Touts Facebook ‘Philosophical Shift’ In Face Of Data Scandals

Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told U.S. senators on Tuesday that the company was attempting to change in light of recent criticism, as he attempted to forestall any strict legislation aimed at the world’s largest social network.

The 33-year-old internet mogul was grilled in a joint hearing of the U.S. Senate’s Commerce and Judiciary committees on a range of issues from Facebook’s handling of alleged Russian attempts at election interference to consumer privacy and hate speech.

“We are going through a broad philosophical shift at the company,” said Zuckerberg, wearing a dark suit and tie instead of his typical T-shirt and jeans.

John Thune, chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee, struck an adversarial tone in his opening remarks https://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings?Id=E7C85E5C-BBA9-4AD9-861D-85B7340BBDFB&Statement_id=FF2FADDA-E1B9-46BE-8FB7-0CE98DDA18FA.

“In the past, many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have been willing to defer to tech companies’ efforts to regulate themselves. But this may be changing,” he said.

Outside the Capitol building, which houses Congress, online protest group Avaaz set up 100 life-sized cutouts of Zuckerberg wearing T-shirts with the words ‘Fix Facebook.’

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