US lawmakers want Facebook's Zuckerberg to testify on Libra by January

Lawmakers in the U.S. want Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer of Facebook, to testify on the Libra stablecoin project by January.

A congressional source told Reuters in a report published Friday that the House Financial Services Committee, chaired by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, wants Zuckerberg to commit to appearing in a hearing by the time.

Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg has also tentatively agreed to testify before the committee on Oct. 29 about the project, but the committee will not schedule a hearing until Zuckerberg commits, per the report.

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Last week, there were reports that Facebook is negotiating details with the committee for a hearing with Sandberg in late October or later in the year.

In July, Facebook executive and Libra co-creator David Marcus testified before the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and faced intense criticism for the project. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, for instance, called Facebook “dangerous” and unworthy of Americans’ trust. Other lawmakers called for a halt in the development of the proposed stablecoin.

Earlier this week, in a leaked audio recording from an internal Facebook meeting, Zuckerberg said that public hearings "tend to be a little more dramatic," while private meetings with various regulators around the world are often "more substantive and less dramatic."

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Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.