It’s common for lawmakers to use simple, seemingly inane questions during congressional hearings to get to a larger point. Though it may appear the lawmaker is unfamiliar with the topic, he is usually looking for a specific answer, or he is looking for a witness to shed some light on a certain detail.
We saw something like this on Tuesday when Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, questioned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, though some in the press have chosen to misrepresent the facts.
[Related: 9 key moments from Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony on Capitol Hill]
The senator started first by noting that the site’s business model is no secret. It is a well-known fact that Facebook makes its money through ad revenues. By sharing user data with third parties, Facebook and similar sites can afford to offer seemingly free services to millions of users. This model is “the very foundation of the Internet economy,” Hatch explained. Yet, he added, certain people are pretending to be surprised to learn that Facebook shared information with firms tied to President Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“Did any of these individuals stop to ask themselves why Facebook and Google … don’t charge for access? Nothing in life is free. Everything involves trade-offs. If you want something without having to pay for it, you’re going to have to pay for it in some other way, it seems to me,” Hatch said.
Seems pretty clear he understands the common saying, “You’re either the customer, or you’re on the menu.”
He then turned his attention to the committee’s witness, “You said … Facebook would always be free. Is that still your objective?”
Zuckerberg responded, “Senator, yes. There will always be a version of Facebook that is free.”
“Well, if so, how do you sustain a business model in which users don’t pay for your service?” Hatch asked.
Zuckerberg said: “Senator, we run ads.”
Hatch’s point about transparency and supposedly free online services was clear. It’s clear how he got to the point of asking outright how Facebook makes money. Unfortunately, his line of questioning proved too difficult for some to follow, including several Internet trolls, and now we have a narrative alleging Hatch, who has been working with Zuckerberg on these issues since 2010, doesn’t understand Facebook.
“Lawmakers seem confused about what Facebook does — and how to fix it,” Vox.com reported, adding in reference specifically to the Hatch exchange that “the questions senators asked … were, at times, inconsistent or confused about basic topics.”
Explain the news indeed.
A story published this week by the Wrap begins with these lines: “Let’s just say Sen. Orrin Hatch might not have the best understanding of Facebook. The 84-year-old Utah senator didn’t seem to know how the social network — one of the two biggest advertising companies on the Internet — makes its revenue. (Hint: It’s by offering a free site propped up by targeted ads).”
On Wednesday, CNN hosts Alisyn Camerota, Dave Briggs and Christine Romans furthered the narrative that Hatch is out of his league.
“So the criticism of these senators was that they don’t really understood how Facebook actually works and they didn’t have the knowledge then to follow-up and actually get to the core of these very important issues,” Briggs said after playing an abbreviated clip of the senator’s exchange with Zuckerberg.
Camerota said later Wednesday morning it did not “seem like” Hatch understood the issue.
“He asked specifically, ‘where are you getting your funding’!” she said in an interview with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., who attempted to explain his GOP colleague’s overall point.
Meanwhile, Hatch’s team has tried to explain what was clearly the senator’s main point, clarifying on social media that “of course” the senator understands “Facebook runs ads. The real issue here is transparency.”
His office tweeted a second time, “Of course Facebook runs ads – anyone shocked by that is clearly unfamiliar with the internet economy. The real issue is transparency.”
That they had to tweet at all when it was clear from the exchange what Hatch was getting at is sad. That they’ve had two do it more than once, and that this bogus narrative has continued into Wednesday morning, is maddening.
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Full disclosure: This author is a paid contributor with CNN/HLN.
