Finally, Facebook’s boss will testify Libra, the controversial cryptocurrency that attracted ire of regulators and policymakers before US law makers on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 at 10:00AM (EDT).
Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and CEO, Facebook will testify Facebook’s proposed plan of launching Libra before the House Financial Services Committee on October 23. Notably, the committee concluded the testimony of Calibra CEO David Marcus with a point that they wanted the Facebook CEO to be present. Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif didn’t provide any concrete decision on Libra even after the long discussion with David Marcus in July this year.
Committee – Zuckerberg will be the sole witness at the hearing
However, the housing committee shared an official release on Wednesday, stating that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the committee this month and importantly, Zuckerberg will be the sole witness at the hearing. They said the meeting will be entitled “An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors.”
At the end of Sept 2019, Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg was reportedly in discussion with Congress, expected for a hearing to be held as soon as late October. But looking at the committee’s press release, it seems that the congress barely wants to listen to anybody other than Facebook chairman Mark Zuckerberg.
Moreover, Congresswoman Maxine Waters previously called Facebook to halt Libra development until all regulatory concerns over Libra be addressed. Accordingly, the release also mentioned about “Keep Big Tech Out of Finance Act” a bill that denies the entry of any private players in the US’s financial spectrum. Conclusively, the official release reads that;
The draft legislation prohibits large platform utilities, like Facebook, from becoming chartered, licensed or registered as a U.S. financial institution (e.g. like taxpayer-backed banks, investment funds, and stock exchanges) or otherwise become affiliated with such financial institutions.
Libra has become a controversial topic these days, especially because the parent company Facebook is a hub for billions of users as a social media platform. Consequently, the bill resembles the fear that Libra might be used largely as a medium of exchange and as such, the US committee wants to prevent any private company to act as a financial institution.
The bill also prohibits large platform utilities from establishing, maintaining, or operating a digital asset that is intended to be widely used as a medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value, or any other similar function as defined by the Federal Reserve, the release concluded.
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