The United States Congress’ hearings on Libra are over. First, on July 16, the Senate Banking Committee held a testimony on Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, which was followed by a meeting organized by the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on the next day. David Marcus, a Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) executive and head of the social media giant’s crypto subsidiary, Calibra, testified on behalf of Libra at both hearings. The legislators extensively interviewed him for two days in a row, mainly inquiring about the project’s privacy and safety. Here are the main outtakes from those sessions.
The lawmakers didn’t hold back. For instance, during the Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio said Facebook shows “breathtaking arrogance” in its attempt to launch a cryptocurrency, given its involvement in a number of high-profile privacy scandals. He then went as far as to say that Facebook “broke journalism” and “helped incite a genocide," referring to the conflict in Myanmar.