The middle east, in the midst of these ancient sectarian and tribal conflicts. After all of the blood and treasure america has poured into the deserts of the middle east, i am committed to pursuing a different course, one that leads to victory for america. Through much work, we have done things that everybody said couldnt be done. Todays announcement validates our course of action with turkey that only a couple of weeks ago was scorned and now people are saying, wow, what a great outcome, congratulations. Its too early to me to be congratulated. But weve done a good job. We saved a lot of lives. Most importantly, we have avoided another costly military intervention that could have led to disastrous consequences, many thousands of people could have been killed. The last administration said assad must go. They could have easily produced that outcome, but they didnt. In fact they drew a very powerful red line in the sand, you all remember, the red line in the sand, when children were gassed and killed but then did not honor their commitment as other children died in the same horrible manner. But i did honor my commitments with 58 tomahawks. Eight long years after president obamas illfated push at regime change, u. S. Troops are still on the ground in syria. More than half a Million People are dead, hundreds of thousands are terribly injured and millions more syrians are displaced. It really is a nightmare of misery. Across the middle east, we have seen anguish on a colossal scale. We have spent 8 trillion on wars in the middle east never really wanting to win those wars. But after all of that money was spent and all those lives lost, the young men and women gravely wounded so many. The middle east is less safe, less stable, and less secure than before these conflicts began. The same people pushing for these wars are often the ones demanding america open its doors to unlimited migration from wartorn regions, importing the terrorism and the threat of terrorism right to our own shores. But not anymore. My administration understands that immigration security is National Security. As a candidate for president , i made clear that we needed a new approach to American Foreign policy, one guided not by ideology, but by experience, history, and a realistic understanding of the world. We are building up americas military might like never before. Investing 2 1 2 trillion dollars since my election. But we will not be depleted. We will not happen again. It will not be allowed to happen again where our military is depleted, fighting in areas of the world where we shouldnt be. When we commit american troops to battle, we must do so only when a Vital National interest is at stake. And when we have a clear objective, a plan for victory and a path out of conflict, thats what we have to have. We need a plan of victory. We will only win. Our whole basis has to be the right plan and when we will only win. Nobody can beat us. Nobody can beat us. I want to again thank everyone on the American Team who helped achieve the ceasefire in syria, save so many lives, along with president erdogan of turkey, a man ive gotten to know very well and a man who loves his country and in his mind hes doing the right thing for his country. And we may be meeting in the very near future. I also want to thank general mazloum for his understanding and great strength and incredible words today to me, but me just as a representative of the United States because he knows that we saved tens of thousands of kurds and were not talking in the long term, were talking in the short term. Were talking something that was going on immediately and something, frankly, that was planned for a long time. The job of your military is not to police the world. Other nations must step up and do their fair share that hasnt taken place. Todays breakthrough is a critical step in that direction. Thank you all very much and god bless america. Thank you, thank you. You said that the isis fighters who escaped have been recaptured. But today your top envoy said thats not true. Do you have a comment . Just taking a vote break in this hearing. Its allowing members to go to the floor to vote on Election Security. Also a hearing on syria that we were planning on bringing you around this time is Available Online at cspan. Org taking a look at u. S. Policy in syria. Expecting the committee to come back as soon as members are done voting. Theyve been hearing from Facebook Ceo Mark Zuckerberg on the cryptocurrency he wants to launch as well as data and Election Security issues having to do with facebook posts and ads. While we wait for the hearing to resume, hell take a look at some of the opening statements. Today were here to examine the impact of facebook on the housing sectors. Our sole witness is mark zuckerberg. Facebooks plans to create a Digital Currency, libra, and a digital wallet, calibra, raised many concerns relating to privacy, trading risk, discrimination, opportunities for diversed owned financial firms, National Security, Monetary Policy and the stability of the Global Financial system. I and other democrats have called for a moratorium on the development of its Digital Currency libra until congress can examine the issues associated with a Big Tech Company developing these Digital Products and take action. As i have examined facebooks various problems, i have come to the conclusion that it would be beneficial for all if facebook concentrates on addressing as many existing differeeficiencie before the project. First on diversity and inclusion, facebook has failed. Its executive ranks and workforce continue to be mostly white and male. Sense reverend Jesse Jackson called upon Silicon ValleyCompanies Including facebook to release its diversity statistics more than five years ago, the representation of africanamericans and hispanics has increased by less than 2 . Facebook also told us that they have 0 managed by diverse firms. On fair housing, facebook has been sued by the National FairHousing Alliance for enabling advertisers to engage in discrimination on its advertising platforms. The u. S. Department of housing and urban development has also filed an official charge of discrimination against facebook for its advertising practices including the companys own ad delivery algorithms which were found to have a discriminatory impact. I understand that facebook has refused to cooperate with huds fair housing investigation by refusing to provide relative havent data. On competition and fairness, facebook is a subject of an antitrust investigation by the attorney generals of 47 states and the District Of Columbia on protecting consumers, facebook was fined 5 billion by the federal trade commission for deceiving consumers and failing to keep their data private. On elections, facebook enabled the russian government to interfere with our election in 2016 with ads designed to pit americans against each other, suppress the vote and boost trump. Facebook allowed a counterfeit black lives matter web page to operate with the goal of discouraging africanamericans from voting. Three years later, these activities are continuing on facebook. We learned just this week that russia and iran are using the same tactics to meddle in our next election. Last week you announced that facebook would not be doing factchecking on political ads given any one facebook labels a politician, a platform to lie, mislead, and misform the American People which would allow facebook to sell more adds. The impact would be a massive Voter Suppression effort that will move at the speed of a clip. Your claim to promote freedom of speech does not ring true. 2 2. 7 billion people use your products. Thats huge. Perhaps you believe that youre above the law and it appears that you aggressively increasing the size of your company and are willing to step on or over anyone, including your competitors, women, people of color, your own users and our democracy to get what you want. All of these problems ive outlined and given the companys size and reach, it should be clear why we have serious concerns about your plans to establish a global Digital Currency that would challenge the u. S. Dollar. In fact, you have opened up a serious discussion about whether facebook should be broken up. The chair recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina for five minutes for an opening statement. Thank you for your appearance. Today is a trial on American Innovation. Theres a growing concern about the role that technology plays in our lives. Thats warranted. Thats necessary. Yes, technology has led to greater prosperity, more freedom of expression and the ability to transcend the limits of space and time to connect us with one another. Its a powerful tool. Powerful tool for our society developed here in the United States gone global. But we know theres also a downside to all of this. T the growing inequality to those who have access to the latest technology. Not to mention the anxiety of the age, thats a deep cultural moment for us. Not as politicians but as americans. That nervous feeling that you need to check your phone throughout the day. Thats something that is now a cultural occurrence for all of us, especially members of congress, most of whom in this room are doing that right now. Theres a lot of anger out there and now its been directed at the architects of this system. Thats why youre here mr. Zuckerberg, thats why youre here today. You are one of the titans of what we call the digital age. Its an enormous amount of responsibility and an enormous weight based off the innovation that youve brought. And maybe its not about libra, its not about some housing ads, no, and maybe its not really even about facebook at all. Its that larger question, in fair or not fair, youre here today to answer for the digital age. But of course, youre not americas first innovator and we hope youre not americas last. This is not the first time that americas faced difficult questions about technology. Sadly throughout the history of innovation, a major theme is the exploitation of fear. Politicians enabled by special interests and a lack of understanding of new Technology Use fear to justify what is ultimately a power grab. New laws, new regulation, but ultimately old and tired ways here in washington. Some of this has led to comical results. But just as one example, there was a time when legislators pushed for what was then called red flag laws. Which required vehicles, socalled horseless carriages to stop on the side of the road and disassemble the automobile until livestock was sufficiently pacified. But other times in history, the use of fear was not so funny. Our last year hearing on libra, for example, was a moment when members of congress on this dais actually compared the technology, that technology of libra, to the terrorist attacks of september 11th will the gentleman yield . Youre making reference to my comments the time belongs to the gentleman from North Carolina. Thank you for taking the bait. Look, i have my qualms about facebook and libra. I do. And the shortcomings of big tech. There are many, yes, there are, but if history has taught us anything, its better to be on the side of innovation, competition and the freedom to build a Better Future for all of us, progress is not preordained and american domination of free speech and global rights is not preordained. Let us not forget that the wave of innovation is spreading across the world with or without us. Thats why i believe American Innovation is on trial this day in this hearing. And the question is, are we going to spend our time trying to devise ways for planners to central and control as to who, when and how innovators can innovate or will we spend time contemplating and leading the way on the question of whether or not it will be American Innovation that leads the next century, being led by american values, the notion that we have of rule of law and free speech rights and americandriven jobs and innovation. Are we going to spend our time buildings a Brighter Future for our americans or trying to tear each other apart. I yield back. I would like to welcome todays witnesses actually, we only have one. Mr. Mark zuckerberg. Chairman and chief executive, officer of facebook. This is mr. Zuckerbergs first appearance before this committee, but i believe that mr. Zuckerberg needs no introduction. Mr. Zuckerberg, without objection, your written statement will be made part of the record. You will have five minutes to summarize your testimony. When you have one minute remaining, a yellow light will appear. At that time i would ask you to wrap up your testimony so we can be respectful of the Committee Members time. Mr. Zuckerberg, you are now recognized for five minutes to present your oral testimony. Thank you. Chairwoman waters, Ranking Member mchenry and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. As we sit here, there are more than a billion people around the world who dont have access to a bank account but could through mobile phones if the right system existed and that includes more than 14 Million People right here in the u. S. Being shut out of the Financial System has real consequences for peoples lives and its the most disadvantaged people who pay the highest price. People have to wait far too long to send money to their families aboard. The Current System is failing them. The financial industry is stagnant and theres no Digital Financial architecture to support the innovation that we need. I believe that this problem can be solved and libra can help. The idea behind libra is that sending money should be as easy and secure as sending a message. Libra will be a global Payment System fully backed by a reserve of cash and liquid assets. I believe this is something that needs to get built, but i get that im not the ideal messenger for this right now. We faced a lot of issues over the past few years and im sure there are a lot of people who wish it were anyone but facebook who were helping to propose this. But theres a reason we care about this and thats because facebook is about putting power in peoples hands. Our services give people a voice to express what matters to them. Giving people control of their money is important too in a stable way to transfer money is empowering. Over the long term, this means that more people transact on our platforms that will be good for our business. But even if it doesnt, this could help people everywhere. There are questions about Financial Stability, fighting terrorism and more and im here today to discuss those risks and how we plan to address them. But i also hope that we get a chance to talk about the risks of not innovating. China is moving quickly to launch a similar idea in the coming months, libra is going to be backed mostly by a dollars and i believe it will extend americas Financial Leadership around the world as well as our Democratic Values and oversight. But if america doesnt innovate, our Financial Leadership is not guaranteed. I actually dont know if libra is going to work but i believe that its important to try new things and as long as youre doing so responsibly. Thats what has made america successful and its why our Tech Industry has led the world. We cowrote a white paper to start a conversation and todays hearing is an important part of that process. What were discussing today is too importantly for any Single Company and thats why we helped to found the Libra Association, its a group of nonprofits that are working to give everyone access to financial tools. I want to be clear, facebook will not be a part of launching the libra Payment System anywhere in the world, even outside the u. S. , until the u. S. Regulators approve. Last time i testified before congress, i talked about taking a broader view of our responsibility and that includes making sure our services are used for good and preventing harm and i want to discuss that across other aspects of our work as well. People shouldnt be discriminated against any of our technologies. Its part of a settlement of civil rights groups, weve banned advertisements for using age, zip codes for these ads. Its part of our commitment for civil rights. I also know that we need more diverse perspectives in our company. Diversity leads to better decisions for your community. We made a commitment that within five years, more than 50 of our workforce will be women, people of color and other underrepresented groups. We made some progress here. There are more people of color, women in technical and business roles and underrepresented people at facebook now, and i know we still have a long way to go. Chairwoman waters, Ranking Member mchenry, committee, this has been a challenging few years for facebook. I recognize that we play an Important Role in society and have unique responsibilities because of that and i feel blessed to be in