Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer was flummoxed, bamboozled and woefully unprepared to question Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a hearing on the recent data breach affecting 87 million users on his wildly popular social networking site.
Watch and share the video on Facebook.
Fischer’s disjointed questions to Zuckerberg during a joint hearing of the of Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees Tuesday demonstrated that Fischer failed to do her homework – again – and drew widespread ridicule on Twitter and media sites.
In fact, Fischer, a member of the Commerce Committee – and its subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet — seemed baffled even about the basic workings of Facebook.
“How many data categories do you store, does Facebook store, on the categories that you collect?” she asked,
Zuckerberg asked her to “clarify what you mean by data categories?”
When Fischer referred to reports she claimed show that Facebook collects 96 data categories, Zuckerberg replied, “Senator, I’m not actually sure what that is referring to.”
But Fischer fumbled along: “How many data categories do you store, does Facebook store, on the categories that you collect?” she asked. “How much? All of it? Everything we click on? Is that in storage somewhere?”
Zuckerberg said that Facebook does store some data, but only with users’ permission.
Fischer also said on the record “we all know” that Facebook’s 2.2 billion worldwide users is “larger than the population of most countries.”
One Twitter user sent this while watching Fischer: “Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) is the most out-of-touch, lowest-functioning member at the hearing today. Is she awake? Is she sleep-talking? How did she get elected?
Another Tweeted: “Sen. Deb Fischer’s questions to Zuckerberg makes me so grateful I am not the person she calls when she can’t figure out how to use her remote.
Charles Pierce of Esquire Politics, wrote that Fischer’s questioning “went on for a few minutes, and not much was gleaned from Fischer’s time in front of the mic.”
Nebraskans expect – and deserve – better. #FischerFails
