Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Zuckerberg’s Toughest Moment Was When A Senator Asked Where He Slept Last Night

One of the most notable exchanges in Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony was when a senator asked him about his sleeping arrangements to make a point about user privacy.

“Mr. Zuckerberg, would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night?” asked Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.

“Um, no,” Zuckerberg said after a long pause. The room broke into laughter.

“If you messaged anybody this week, would you share with us the names of the people you’ve messaged?” Durbin asked.

“Senator, no, I would probably not choose to do that publicly here,” Zuckerberg said.

“I think that might be what this is all about,” Durbin responded. “Your right to privacy, the limits of your right to privacy, and how much you’d give away in modern America in the name of ‘connecting people around the world.’ The question basically of what information Facebook’s collecting, who they’re sending it to, and whether they’ve ever asked me in advance my permission to do that.”

Watch the exchange here: Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.