Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear before Congress this month

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear before Congress this month as tech giant is under pressure from lawmakers and regulators over its massive market power and record of privacy breaches.

Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat who hes House Financial Services Committee, anunced Wednesday that Zuckerberg will testify at a hearing by panel on Oct. 23. focus will be on Facebook’s plan to create a digital currency and its role in housing. company agreed in a legal settlement in March to overhaul its -targeting systems to prevent discrimination in housing, credit and employment s.

Lawmakers from both parties and top regulators, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, have criticised Facebook’s plan for new currency, expressing concern that it could be used for illicit activity such as money laundering or drug trafficking. re also is concern that massive reserve created with money used to buy new currency, to be called Libra, could supplant Fed and destabilise financial system, and that consumers could be hurt by Libra losses.

“Mark looks forward to testifying before House Financial Services Committee and responding to lawmakers’ questions,” Facebook said in a statement Wednesday.

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In July, Waters and or committee Democrats sent a letter to Facebook requesting a halt on moving forward with currency and with digital wallet, called Calibra, which would be used in new currency system. House Democrats also have threatened legislation that would block big tech companies from getting into banking.

Waters has called Libra “a new Swiss-based financial system” that potentially is too big to fail and could require a taxpayer bailout.

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Concerns over cryptocurrency

France’s finance minister said Wednesday that European Union should t allow Facebook to develop currency project on “European territory” because it threatens monetary sovereignty of member countries. “It should t be role of a private company to try to get a sovereign currency like a sovereign state,” Finance Minister Bru Le Maire said.

Unlike digital currencies such as bitcoin or Ereum, Facebook’s plan calls for Libra to be backed by real currencies.

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David Marcus, Facebook executive leing project, told lawmakers over two days of congressional hearings in July that Facebook would t launch currency project until it h received all necessary approvals from regulators and secured safeguards to protect privacy of users’ data. He said Facebook will t control Libra because Facebook will be only one of about 100 companies and nprofits in an association that will man currency.

plan would open low-cost online commerce to millions of people around world who lack access to bank accounts, and would make it cheaper to send money across borders, Marcus said. He did t agree to a suspension of plan or a pilot project, as several lawmakers urged.

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Facebook, a social media giant based in Menlo Park, California, with nearly 2.5 billion users around globe, is under heavy scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators following a series of data privacy scandals, including lapses in opening personal data of millions of users to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Justice Department, Federal Tre Commission and House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee are all conducting investigations of Facebook and or big tech companies amid accusations of abuse of ir market power to crush competition.

Zuckerberg h three days of private meetings in Washington last month with Trump and several lawmakers who, like president, are critics of tech industry. He also met with chairman of House Intelligence Committee to discuss ways to prevent foreign actors from disrupting next year’s elections. In a separate session, Zuckerberg told leers of House Judiciary Committee that company would cooperate with ir antitrust investigation.

Zuckerberg last testified to Congress in spring, when he was questioned about privacy, election interference and or issues.