Facebook VP Admits Zuckerberg's Absence at International Hearing Is 'Not Great'
*By Carlo Versano*
A group of international lawmakers assembled in London on Tuesday to question a high-ranking Facebook ($FB) executive about disinformation, data protection, and regulation. It did not go [unnoticed](https://twitter.com/CommonsCMS/status/1067380726142836736) that the executive was not CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Richard Allan, Facebook's vice president of public policy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, answered inquiries from representatives of nine countries, while seated next to an empty chair left open for Zuckerberg. Early on, Allan, who is a former member of the British Parliament, admitted that the chief executive's absence was "not great."
Charlie Angus of Canada seized on Zuckerberg's absence, referring to him as part of a cohort of "frat boy billionaires from California" who have damaged global democracy.
"You have lost the trust of the international community to self-police," Angus said to Allan.
MP Ian Lucas of Britain continued the onslaught, alleging that Facebook is well-aware when data is being misused on its platform. "The only time you ever take action is when you’re found out," he said.
Allan said Facebook has created "task forces" for every national election worldwide and is scaling that to cover regional elections. "In an ideal world," the company would be able to monitor information around every election in every country, he said. "We're building it up."
But Allan also said he did not believe that tech companies like Facebook should be held legally responsible for everything that's posted on their platforms, and said it should be up to judiciaries ー not Facebook employees ー to decide what is true or false information.
The hearing was the inaugural public meeting of the "International Grand Committee on Disinformation" a body composed of parliamentarians from countries including Brazil, Belgium, and Singapore. Damian Collins, the British lawmaker who chairs the commission, had threatened to release private internal Facebook documents he obtained, and which are under seal in the U.S. as part of a lawsuit.
Collins did not ultimately release the documents during the hearing, but he appeared to reference them when he alleged that a Facebook engineer was aware of a major data breach with Russian fingerprints as early as 2014.
"An engineer at Facebook notified the company in October 2014 that entities with Russian IP addresses had been using a Pinterest API key to pull over three billion data points a day through the Ordered Friends API," Collins said.
Allan said the documents that Collins appeared to be referring to were "at best misleading." He was asked to come back with more information.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
