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Facebook privately pitched its cryptocurrency plan last month to regulators. They were left even mor
Source: Washington Post
Facebook privately pitched its cryptocurrency plan last month to regulators. They were left even more scared.
By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Damian Paletta
July 16 at 6:36 PM
Two days after Facebook announced plans for the creation of a new cryptocurrency for its 2.7 billion users last month, the tech giant presented its 12-page white paper to more than a dozen officials from the Treasury Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies.
Some of the regulators came away from the meeting in a Treasury conference room stunned that Facebook wasn’t more prepared to address concerns about money laundering, consumer protection and other potential financial risks caused by Libra, the cryptocurrency, three people familiar with the meeting said.
The early encounter shows how Facebook, despite several years of run-ins with policymakers, is paying the price in Washington for the lack of trust resulting from its many privacy scandals. If anything, skepticism of Facebook’s newest ambitions has only deepened since then: Opposition to Libra from White House and financial regulators has been joined by members of both parties in Congress as well as several foreign governments.
The tone turned even more acrimonious on Tuesday in Washington as lawmakers used a hearing on Libra to vent concerns about Facebook’s role in society, one of three hearings Tuesday where lawmakers hit big technology firms.
“Facebook is dangerous,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Tuesday at the first of two congressional hearings scheduled for this week. “They certainly don’t respect the power of the technologies they are playing with. Like a toddler who has gotten his hands on a book of matches, Facebook has burned down the house over and over, and called every arson a learning experience.”
-snip-
By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Damian Paletta
July 16 at 6:36 PM
Two days after Facebook announced plans for the creation of a new cryptocurrency for its 2.7 billion users last month, the tech giant presented its 12-page white paper to more than a dozen officials from the Treasury Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies.
Some of the regulators came away from the meeting in a Treasury conference room stunned that Facebook wasn’t more prepared to address concerns about money laundering, consumer protection and other potential financial risks caused by Libra, the cryptocurrency, three people familiar with the meeting said.
The early encounter shows how Facebook, despite several years of run-ins with policymakers, is paying the price in Washington for the lack of trust resulting from its many privacy scandals. If anything, skepticism of Facebook’s newest ambitions has only deepened since then: Opposition to Libra from White House and financial regulators has been joined by members of both parties in Congress as well as several foreign governments.
The tone turned even more acrimonious on Tuesday in Washington as lawmakers used a hearing on Libra to vent concerns about Facebook’s role in society, one of three hearings Tuesday where lawmakers hit big technology firms.
“Facebook is dangerous,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Tuesday at the first of two congressional hearings scheduled for this week. “They certainly don’t respect the power of the technologies they are playing with. Like a toddler who has gotten his hands on a book of matches, Facebook has burned down the house over and over, and called every arson a learning experience.”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/07/16/facebook-privately-pitched-its-cryptocurrency-plan-last-month-regulators-they-were-left-even-more-scared/
