[kaitnieks]

Maybe I'm too cynical about politics, but it appears to me that the point of these hearings is not to solve or investigate anything, it's to generate soundbites that voters or potential future voters would like. It's not even that important what the reply is, as long as the politician asks the hard question and demonstrates his concern, and if it makes the news & press, that's victory for them.

[austenallred]

Note how many of the senators who voted to expand surveillance programs and the NSA became suddenly very concerned for privacy. They just wanted to try and dunk on him and get in a sound bite.

[fullshark]

And the guardian is pissed that the dunks weren't fierce enough I guess. I'm not sure what they expected, I thought it was like every congressional hearing ever.

[uses]

> Note how many of the senators who voted to expand surveillance programs and the NSA became suddenly very concerned for privacy

Ok but even from their perspective, and I'm trying to not give too much credit here, but there is a difference between giving specific, authorized government agencies a blank check to spy on whoever they want to in order to achieve their mission of national security, and giving a blank check to any company that wants to collect unlimited information and surveillance on its users in order to accomplish whatever goal it desires. They're very different questions even though they both involve personal privacy.

[bonestamp2]

And cover their own ass against contributions he made to their campaigns... "I was hard on him so his money doesn't buy my influence."

[yodsanklai]

What I find particularly annoying in this kind of hearing is the condescending tone of the politicians. They are eager to put the blame on someone else when they are ultimately the ones who vote the laws.

[bonestamp2]

You're not wrong, but on the flipside... do we really want them sitting around all the time thinking up laws they can enact to prevent every possible wrongdoing in society? It's a reasonable expectation that people self-govern with some morality and ethics and not look for every possible way to advance at the expense of someone else.

[craftyguy]

Company (mis)handling of user information is not exactly a new, one-off problem that came up just this one time. I would argue it's the exact problem they should be trying to curb with legislation, except for the fact they'll undoubtedly get it wrong since they'll look to "industry experts" like Mark Z for guidance.

[bitxbitxbitcoin]

This is the key point in the television farce. The politicians, more so or just as much as Zuckerberg, are trying to save face.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

Yeah, that's pretty much the entire purpose of Senate and Congressional hearings and always has been. When those groups want to get something done they do it behind closed doors.

[droidist2]

Absolutely! It's complete grandstanding. I really wish someone would go Howard Hughes on them.

[trophycase]

This is so true. I was watching a Congressional hearing with the head of the SEC and FCTC about Cryptocurrencies about 2 months ago and I clearly remember Elizabeth Warren asking a completely unrelated, derailing question. I remember thinking "What the hell is she doing?" and then "I bet that you're going to find some Youtube clip: 'Elizabeth Warren totally GRILLS head of SEC!'"