It's not specifically about Facebook, Zuckerberg, or the "minutiae details of private company's operations", but rather the social media industry as a whole.

Essentially, the purpose is for lawmakers to get a first-hand, expert account of the current state of the industry, how effective current laws are and in what ways they potentially failed, and what changes/improvements should be made to prevent those failures from happening again. They're actually quite common for each section of Congress individually, though a joint hearing like Zuckerburg's is decently rare, and most are quite boring so they don't get much attention.

Looking at Mark Zuckerberg's prepared testimony should help answer the topics legislators are interested in, as it is essentially his expectations of what he'll be asked:

Election Interference: Obviously the big topic these days. Legislators would want to know how a foreign entity could use social media platforms to influence an election, so that they may better draft legislation/regulation aimed at minimizing interference.

Data Use: The Cambridge Analytica thing is what caused this most recent controversy. For this testimony, it is primarily regarding the proper use of data, who is responsible for monitoring that use, and what responsibilities the user/company/government should have. Again, legislators will want to know whether companies voluntary policies are enough to protect consumers (who never read those agreements anyway since they aren't lawyers), or if changes to legislation/regulation is needed in order to prevent misuse of data.

It's not specifically about Facebook, Zuckerberg, or the "minutiae details of private company's operations", but rather the social media industry as a whole.

Essentially, the purpose is for lawmakers to get a first-hand, expert account of the current state of the industry, how effective current laws are and in what ways they potentially failed, and what changes/improvements should be made to prevent those failures from happening again. They're actually quite common for each section of Congress individually, though a joint hearing like Zuckerburg's is decently rare, and most are quite boring so they don't get much attention.

Looking at Mark Zuckerberg's prepared testimony should help answer the topics legislators are interested in, as it is essentially his expectations of what he'll be asked:

Election Interference: Obviously the big topic these days. Legislators would want to know how a foreign entity could use social media platforms to influence an election, so that they may better draft legislation/regulation aimed at minimizing interference.

Data Use: The Cambridge Analytica thing is what caused this most recent controversy. For this testimony, it is primarily regarding the proper use of data, who is responsible for monitoring that use, and what responsibilities the user/company/government should have. Again, legislators will want to know whether a company's voluntary policies are enough to protect consumers (who never read those agreements anyway since they aren't lawyers), or if changes to legislation/regulation is needed in order to prevent misuse of data.

It's not specifically about Facebook, Zuckerberg, or the "minutiae details of private company's operations", but rather the social media industry as a whole.

Essentially, the purpose is for lawmakers to get a first-hand, expert account of the current state of the industry, how effective current laws are and in what ways they potentially failed, and what changes/improvements should be made to prevent those failures from happening again. They're actually quite common for each section of Congress individually, though a joint hearing like Zuckerburg's is decently rare, and most are quite boring so they don't get much attention.

Looking at Mark Zuckerberg's prepared testimony should help answer the topics legislators are interested in, as it is essentially his expectations of what he'll be asked:

Election Interference: Obviously the big topic these days. Legislators would want to know how a foreign entity could use social media platforms to influence an election, so that they may better draft legislation/regulation aimed at minimizing interference.

Data Use: The Cambridge Analytica thing is what caused this most recent controversy, primarily regarding the proper use of data and who is responsible for monitoring that use. Again, legislators will want to know whether companies voluntary policies are enough to protect consumers (who never read those agreements since they aren't lawyers), or if changes to legislation/regulation is needed in order to prevent misuse of data.

It's not specifically about Facebook, Zuckerberg, or the "minutiae details of private company's operations", but rather the social media industry as a whole.

Essentially, the purpose is for lawmakers to get a first-hand, expert account of the current state of the industry, how effective current laws are and in what ways they potentially failed, and what changes/improvements should be made to prevent those failures from happening again. They're actually quite common for each section of Congress individually, though a joint hearing like Zuckerburg's is decently rare, and most are quite boring so they don't get much attention.

Looking at Mark Zuckerberg's prepared testimony should help answer the topics legislators are interested in, as it is essentially his expectations of what he'll be asked:

Election Interference: Obviously the big topic these days. Legislators would want to know how a foreign entity could use social media platforms to influence an election, so that they may better draft legislation/regulation aimed at minimizing interference.

Data Use: The Cambridge Analytica thing is what caused this most recent controversy. For this testimony, it is primarily regarding the proper use of data, who is responsible for monitoring that use, and what responsibilities the user/company/government should have. Again, legislators will want to know whether companies voluntary policies are enough to protect consumers (who never read those agreements anyway since they aren't lawyers), or if changes to legislation/regulation is needed in order to prevent misuse of data.