Zuckerberg's notes show he was prepared for senators to ask about resigning

The extensive notes were captured by an Associated Press photographer.

April 10, 2018, 9:01 PM

An Associated Press photo of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's notes reveal he was prepared for senators to ask him about resigning from his company at a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary committees Tuesday afternoon.

"I made mistakes," the note said, under a bullet point labeled "Resign?" "Big challenge, but we've solved problems before, going to solve this one."

Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook in 2004 while in college, appeared at the hearing to address concerns about alleged user privacy breaches, fake news and the alleged manipulation of the platform by a foreign adversary to spread disinformation during the 2016 presidential campaign.

His notes, which the AP said were "briefly visible" to one of its photographers, include bulleted lists with headings such as "accountability," "data security," "election integrity (Russia)" and "Defend Facebook."

"I use FB every day, so does my family, invest a lot in security," the notes said in the "data security" section.

The notes included a section on Apple CEO Tim Cook as well. "Lots of stories about apps misusing Apple data, never seen Apple notify people," the notes read. When Cook was asked in a recent interview with Recode about what he would do if in a position similar to Zuckerberg, he replied, “I wouldn’t be in this situation."

Though several of the prepared defenses in the notes were used by Zuckerberg during Tuesday's Senate hearing, some never came up.

Under the heading "Defend Facebook" were the words, "If attacked: Respectfully, I reject that. Not who we are."

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