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By Frank Pallotta, CNN Business
Social media can be hard to understand, but luckily for Congress, it had the Facebook whistleblower guide them through “Saturday Night Live. “
The NBC variety show opened on Saturday with Francoise Haugen, played by Heidi Gardner, testifying on Capitol Hill about the inner workings of Facebook. Unfortunately for Gardner’s Haugen, it quickly turned into Congress asking questions about how social media works.
“I want to thank the Facebook whistleblower for coming forward,” said Mikey Day Senator Richard Blumenthal.
Gardner’s Haugen responded by saying it was nice to be in an office without “no skateboards.”
Day’s Blumenthal then let his colleagues ask questions of Haugen, with Senator Dianne Feinstein, played by Cecily Strong, first.
“What Facebook has done is shameful and you better believe Congress will take action,” she said. “Right after passing the infrastructure bill, raising the debt ceiling, prosecuting those responsible for the Jan.6 insurgency, and preventing Trump from using executive privilege even though he’s no longer president. But after all that, watch out, Facebook!
She then asked if having 2,000 friends on Facebook was “good”.
“How many does Drake have?” 4000? Strong’s Feinstein asked.
“I think he’s got around 50 million,” Gardner’s Haugen said.
“Oh my God, no wonder he never responded to my nudge,” Strong’s Feinstein replied.
The questioning then shifted to Senator Ted Cruz, played by Aidy Bryant.
“I was particularly drawn to your testimony about online bullying,” said Cruz de Bryant. “How some teens, and even some adult men, are bullied almost constantly.”
Cruz de Bryant then asked how to turn off the bully feature and said he was concerned about the toxic groups Haugen de Gardner mentioned.
“I’ve seen bands with hateful names, like ‘Ted Cruz sucks’,” said Bryant’s Cruz. “Now, shouldn’t you report this as misinformation?” “
Haugen de Gardner explained to Cruz de Bryant that these groups were not disinformation, but rather the opinion of one person.
“Well that’s the opinion of more than one person,” he said.
The skit ended with two of the social media executives joining in for questioning.
The first was the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg played by Alex Moffat.
“No, no, we don’t need that guy anymore,” Day’s Blumenthal said.
Instead, he went to see the “OG Social Media King,” Tom of Myspace, played by Pete Davidson.
“Remember me? I was harmless,” Davidson said. “I don’t do any of that weird algorithm thing. We barely maintain the website.
He then said, “Come see your group of friends from 20 years ago” and “let’s put America back in the top 8”.
Davidson’s Tom then kicked off the show with his iconic slogan, “Live, from New York… It’s Saturday Night!”
The-CNN-Wire
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