“Facebook is dangerous,” asserted Sen. Sherrod
Brown of Ohio, the committee’s senior Democrat.
Like a toddler playing with matches, “Facebook has
burned down the house over and over,” he told
Marcus. “Do you really think people should trust
you with their bank accounts and their money?”
Republican Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona said
“the core issue here is trust.” Users won’t be
able to opt out of providing their personal data
when joining the new digital wallet for Libra,
McSally said. “Arizonans will be more likely to be
scammed” using the currency, she said.
The litany of criticism came as Congress began
two days of hearings on the currency planned
by Facebook, to be called Libra. Also Tuesday, a
House Judiciary subcommittee was extending its
bipartisan investigation of the market power of
Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple.
On the defensive from bursts of aggressive
questioning, Marcus indicated the currency plan
is a work in progress. “We will take the time” to
ensure the network won’t be open to use by
criminals and illicit activity like money laundering
and financial fraud. “We hope that we’ll avoid
conflicts of interest. We have a lot of work to do,”
Marcus said.
The grilling followed a series of negative comments
and warnings about the Libra plan in recent
days from President Donald Trump, his treasury
secretary and the head of the Federal Reserve.
But some senators emphasized the potential
positive benefits of Facebook’s plan, meant
to bring money transacting at low cost to
millions around the globe who don’t have bank
accounts. Facebook had its strong defenders of
the project, too, on the panel.