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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy, Congressman French Hill (AR-02) questioned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about plans to introduce a new digital currency, Libra, as well as how to protect individual data privacy.

Click on the video below to watch Congressman Hill's questions for Mark Zuckerberg from Wednesday's committee hearing:

The transcript of Congressman Hill's questions for Mark Zuckerberg is copied below:

Congressman Hill: Mr. Zuckerberg, we're glad to have you in the House Financial Services Committee. As a former startup investor, entrepreneur, and banker over many years, I congratulate you like so many of my colleagues, on your extraordinary investment and entrepreneurial success in creating Facebook. I do also admire people in our capitalist system here that are disrupters--that find a gap, find a weakness and try to exploit it with a new product that's better for consumers. If we hadn't done that over the past 50 years in finance, we wouldn't have ATMs, we wouldn't have credit cards, we wouldn't have debit cards, we wouldn’t have free checking or securitization or 401(k) plans or mobile apps. Of course, this committee is keen to embrace innovation. Working with my friend, Dr. Foster on the FinTech Task Force and the AI Task Force, this is important, and there is bipartisan support for innovation on this committee. I certainly don't want to punish the Libra association for a product that hasn't even existed yet, but I was reading the G-7 report that Mr. David Marcus participated in. The G-7 report says, “the G-7 believes that no global stable coin project should begin operations until the legislative regulatory and oversight challenges and risks outlined above are adequately addressed through appropriate designs, adhering to regulations that are clear and proportionate to those risks.” Is that a statement that you agree with?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: Congressman, I haven't reviewed that report in detail, but in general, we understand that working in financial services and payments -- I mean, this is an area that's very sensitive. People's money is obviously extremely important to them and there are good regulations that are in place to make sure that all services basically protect people. I want to make sure we do the same and are at the same standard or higher in everything that we do.

Congressman Hill: Well, I appreciate that. That's good. I think be you've made it clear to Mr. Huizenga, Mr. Luetkemeyer, and others that the Libra association will not go forward in the world or in any country unless it meets an adequate standard here in the United States. I guess what I’m saying is this G-7 announcement last week mirrors that exactly. That the G-7 countries, beyond the United States, agree with that view as well.

Let's talk about privacy for a minute. George Gilder wrote a great book called Life After Google. I’m sure you’ve read it. If not, I commend it to you. A quote I’m paraphrasing, “private keys are held by human beings, not by governments, not by Google.” I would add parenthetically, “not by Facebook.” Do you support the idea as a future digital world, we as individuals each control our data and we exchange it only when relevant at the time necessary to conduct a particular transaction? Is that a world you acknowledge is the future?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: Well, Congressman, I think it might be a little more nuanced. I certainly think that that there should be private tools that people can use to exchange messages and information privately. That's why WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted and that’s why we're moving our private messaging tools to being end-to-end encrypted. At the same time, I think that as content gets broader and more publicly visible, there the equities and values and the balance there shifts towards upholding public safety in addition to privacy. I think that if someone is sharing something very broadly, we need to make sure it's not broadly inciting violence.

Congressman Hill: I understand that. I’m talking about people's personal data, the privacy of people's personal data. That it's theirs to share as they deem fit under some authentication.

Let's talk about digital currency. Dr. Foster and I also sent a letter to Chairman Powell at the Federal Reserve about the idea of a digital dollar. My interest in that was actually raised by Mr. David Marcus in his testimony. Wouldn't it be easier if there was a digital token that was a U.S. dollar--for that to simply be the digital token you're looking for, and as noted here, that you don't go and try to create something separate? Wouldn't that meet all the standards you need? You want to help remittances, you want to lower costs, you want to create a different rail for payments. Wouldn't that be successful in doing that?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: My understanding, Congressman, is that the community is fairly split on this point. I think from a U.S. regulatory perspective it would probably be significantly simpler, but because we're trying to build something that can also be a global payment system that works in other places, it may be less welcome in other places if it's only 100% based on the dollar.