Mark Zuckerberg Meets President Trump And Other Lawmakers
Mending fences? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg meets President Trump and other US lawmakers
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has met with President Donald Trump in what is being described as a ‘nice meeting’.
The two men have clashed previously, as President Trump accused Facebook in the past of of being biased in favour of politicians from the Democratic Party, and the role it has played in past elections.
The president has met with other tech bosses previously. In April President Trump had a face to face meeting with the boss of his favourite social networking platform, namely Twitter co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Jack Dorsey.
President meeting
That meeting between the two men could have potentially been awkward, as President Trump had hit out at the platform claiming it was discriminating against him and other republicans after the number of his followers fluctuated.
And now according to the Reuters, neither Facebook’s Zuckerberg or the President disclosed any specifics about their discussion.
“Nice meeting with Mark Zuckerberg of @Facebook in the Oval Office today,” tweeted the President.
Zuckerberg reportedly said “had a good, constructive meeting with President Trump at the White House today.”
Zuckerberg’s mission to Washington was viewed by some as fence mending, after the Facebook CEO endured two bruising encounters with US lawmakers in the Senate in 2018, over the role of his firm in the Cambridge Analytica data sharing scandal.
Fence mending
And Zuckerberg met with other US lawmakers on Thursday including Senators Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Mike Lee.
Hawley in particular is a vocal critic of Facebook, and Zuckerberg reportedly faced ‘frank’ questioning about the social network’s failures to protect consumer privacy from him.
Reuters also reported Zuckerberg also had dinner with lawmakers, including Senator Richard Blumenthal, on Wednesday evening.
The Facebook CEO is also scheduled to meet with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and Representative Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, on Friday.
He will also meet with several high-ranking House Democrats.
