*By Alisha Haridasani and Jacqueline Corba*
European lawmakers aggressively questioned Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, indicating they may consider further restricting the social media company's unchecked growth and regulating its business practices.
Zuckerberg, meeting publicly with members of the European Parliament in Brussels, again apologized for the company's failure to protect the personal data of millions of Facebook users from a third-party app that shared their information with the British research firm Cambridge Analytica.
"We haven't done enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm," Zuckerberg said Tuesday, echoing the apology he offered Congress in testimony last month in Washington. "That was a mistake."
But European lawmakers were even more confrontational than their American counterparts, piling questions on Zuckerberg over Facebook's failure to combat fake news, thwart foreign interference in democratic elections, and limit the access of private data collected from its users.
"They asked very intelligent questions that were drawn from the hearings in the Senate and the House of Representatives, building on them in very interesting ways," said Adi Robertson, a senior reporter for The Verge.
A German member of the European Parliament asked pointedly about Facebook’s market share, and whether it should be subject to [antitrust regulations](https://www.c-span.org/video/?446000-1/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-testifies-eu-lawmakers), a common theme in Tuesday's questions.
“It is time to discuss breaking Facebook’s monopoly because it’s already too much power in only one hand?” said Manfred Weber, the head of the European Parliament’s majority party, the European People's Party.
Guy Verhofstadt, a Belgium leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, suggested the company should consider splitting up WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger. “Could you or would you cooperate with the European antitrust authorities?” he asked Zuckerberg.
This line of questioning about Facebook's monopoly position was very "aggressive," said Roberson.
After all of the lawmakers asked their questions, Zuckerberg chose a few to answer at the end of the session, and he vowed to respond to the rest with written statements. With so many of their questions unanswered and no time remaining, the meeting bizarrely descended into back-and-forth bickering among lawmakers over the flawed format of the hearing.
"It seems like even people who were there on the floor were sort of baffled by the choice of panel," said Robertson.
Zuckerberg's questioning took place days before Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, goes into effect. The new law, one of the most sweeping privacy protection laws in the world, requires all companies to share how online user data is used and offer users the option to delete their data. Companies that fail to comply can be fined up to 4 percent of their global revenue.
Zuckerberg said Tuesday that Facebook would extend to users elsewhere in the world the same data privacy protections that European citizens will have under the new law.
“At the heart of Europe’s new data protection law, the GDPR, are three important principles: control, transparency, and accountability,” he said. “We’ve always shared these values.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/zuckerberg-testifies-to-european-parliament).
Spotify beat fourth quarter earnings expectations, and also reported a jump in monthly active users and in paid subscribers. The report comes as the company grapples with a new question: is it simply a streaming platform, or is it a media company responsible for the content it posts, like Joe Rogan's controversial podcast? Greg Martin, Co-Founder of Rainmaker Securities, joins Closing Bell to discuss why the stock took a hit even though earnings results were positive, how the company can move forward through the Rogan controversy, and more.
Chen Arad, Chief Operating Officer for Solidus Labs, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he explains why Wormhole was particularly vulnerable to a $320+ million crypto hack and discusses what new investors need to do in order to protect their assets.
E-commerce platform for construction and building materials RenoRun has raised $142 million in a Series B round, which the company says is the fourth largest Series B round in Canadian history. RenoRun’s platform offers same-day delivery of construction materials to job sites in Canada and the United States. The company aims to revolutionize the construction industry by maximizing productivity and efficiency. RenoRun co-founder and CEO Eamonn O’Rourke joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Facebook parent company Meta reported weaker-than-expected fourth quarter earnings, and also issued disappointing guidance for Q1 2022. The tech giant is also under pressure due to Apple's iOS privacy change, as well as continued multi-billion dollar losses for its metaverse focused business unit. Angelo Zino, Tech Analyst at CFRA Research, joins Closing Bell to discuss the earnings results, how Apple's iOS privacy change will impact revenue, whether the metaverse is an underrated investment opportunity, and more.
The video game industry has seen monumental growth the past few years - with an increasing amount of companies jumping head first into the space. In January alone, Microsoft announced its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard, game publisher Take-Two agreed to buy Zynga, and most recently, Sony announced it has agreed to buy game developer Bungie for $3.6 billion. Tobias Batton, CEO and founder of Ex Populus, joined Cheddar Movers to discuss the surge in M&A activity in the gaming space.
Facebook parent Meta reported disappointing results in its first quarterly earnings report since rebranding to focus on the metaverse. The tech giant delivered mixed results with quarterly profit falling well below Wall Street expectations. Shares plunged more than 20 percent in after hours trading as a result. Martin Garner, COO of CCS Insight, joined Cheddar Movers to break down the company's results.
Super Group, the company behind leading global online sports betting and gaming businesses Betway and Spin, has landed on Wall Street. The company went public via SPAC with Sports Entertainment Acquisition Corp., and now lists on the NYSE under the ticker symbol 'SGHC.' This debut comes as the U.S. sports betting market continues to heat up with more and more states legalizing the practice. Eric Grubman, chairman of Super Group, joined Cheddar to discuss.
Miami wants to be the crypto capital of the world. Mayor Francis Suarez has gone all in on the blockchain, even accepting one of his first paychecks in Bitcoin, hosting one of the world's largest digital cryptocurrency conferences, and marketing Miami as a great place for tech experts to work. Maja Vujinovic, managing director of OGroupLLC, joined Cheddar's Fast Forward to discuss Miami's enthusiasm toward crypto, some of the potential risks that entails, and where the city might be heading when it comes to the crypto takeover.
Hinge users who have children can opt-in to a $100 stipend up to $25,000 for childcare. Logan Ury, the director of relationship science for the online dating platform, noted the issue as an obstacle for single parents who want to go out on dates. "We have heard that singles with children have a hard time going on dates for one of the reasons being that it's just hard to find childcare and it's hard to be able to afford it," she said. Ury also said that the hot topic among Hinge's users is mental health and the prioritizing of mental health.
