Facebook will cease membership in the Libra Association if a project to create the digital currency of the same name is launched without the consent of the regulator. The head of the world's largest social network, Mark Zuckerberg, said this on Wednesday, October 23, during a hearing in the US Congress.
The hearing at the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee lasted several hours, during which Zuckerberg answered numerous congressional questions. At the same time, Libra alone was not enough – the head of Facebook was asked numerous other questions, including previous leaks of user data and the use of the platform for foreign interference in the last US presidential election.
Regarding Libra directly, Mark Zuckerberg not only confirmed his previous words that Facebook will not launch Libra until the US regulators give it a green light, but also added that the social network will reconsider its participation in the project if this happens prematurely .
“If in the end we do not get permission, we will not be part of the Association ,” he said.
This statement can have widespread consequences for the social network, according to which Libra, among other things, will allow users to directly interact with advertisers, which in turn will positively affect the income of companies.
Mark Zuckerberg also made an attempt to defend Libra as an important innovation for the financial services industry, although he acknowledged the fair concern that it was Facebook who led the initiative.
“I believe that this should be created, although I understand that right now I am not the most ideal conductor of these ideas. Over the past few years, we have encountered a number of problems, and I am sure that many of those present here would like someone to make such a proposal, but not Facebook, ”he said.
Nonetheless, billions of people still use Facebook, Zuckerberg noted, because they trust this platform as a place where they can share with related content, messages, photos and services.
Lawmakers have also posed a number of questions about encryption and political censorship to Facebook, as well as criticized the social network for not using the existing infrastructure enough to support people without access to banking services, launching instead an ambitious and “risky” project, as Zuckerberg himself admits. .
Found Zuckerberg, however, and his supporters. One of them, for example, turned out to be Republican Barry Laudermilk, who praised Zuckerberg for calling himself "capitalist", and even compared him to the current US president, Donald Trump.
“You are both successful businessmen, you are both capitalists. You have achieved considerable success, but what really unites you is that you want to break the status quo. He [Trump] calls it “drain the swamp,” you call it innovation, ”said the congressman.
Zuckerberg himself, meanwhile, once again emphasized that Libra is not designed to compete with sovereign currencies and will cooperate with the Federal Reserve System and other central banks so that the project does not create problems for monetary policy.
“We see a lot of cryptocurrencies. We are trying to create a safe, secure and regulated alternative. As a large company, we will not create something unregulated or decentralized. I can’t speak for the whole Association, but I give you a promise on behalf of Facebook, ” he added.
Recall, it became known earlier that the Ministry of Finance will continue to monitor possible risks for the financial system associated with the digital currency project Facebook.
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