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House lawmakers officially ask Facebook to put Libra cryptocurrency project on hold
House Democrats are requesting Facebook halt development of its proposed cryptocurrency project Libra, as well as its digital wallet Calibra, until Congress and regulators have time to investigate the possible risks it poses to the global financial system.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, hinted at a move like this last month shortly after the project was announced. Waters's letter today, sent to Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, and Calibra CEO David Marcus, formalizes that request from a few weeks ago. Aside from Waters, the letter is signed by House Finance's subcommittee leaders.
"If products and services like these are left improperly regulated and without sufficient oversight, they could pose systemic risks that endanger U.S. and global financial stability," Water writes. "These vulnerabilities could be exploited and obscured by bad actors, as other cryptocurrencies, exchanges, and wallets have been in the past."
"[Libra] could pose systemic risks that endanger US and global financial stability."
[...] "We look forward to working with lawmakers as this process moves forward, including answering their questions at the upcoming House Financial Services Committee hearing," a Facebook spokesperson told The Verge Tuesday.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 05 2019, @11:19PM (2 children)
History has shown that if you want results, you don't *ask* a company run by assholes to do something. You *demand* they do it under penalty of fines and/or incarceration.
(Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Friday July 05 2019, @11:31PM
Better yet, legislate against their proposal if they won’t come to the table for binding negotiations.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 05 2019, @11:32PM
They don't have the votes in the Senate they would need to back up threats.
Anyway, it's only since the trope of $50 Rrrussian cash on FB beating Hillary's $trillions that FB's every fart ends up before congress. Anything FB would have gotten into before would have been A-OK.