on the crypto
The arrival of Whitepaper di Pound, the new cryptocurrency that Facebook it is expected to launch next year, it continues to talk a lot about itself and to provoke many fibrillations of politics. If it was in Italy Francesco Boccia, Democratic Party MP, to rule on the subject, in the United States was instead the democratic parliamentarian Maxine Waters, member of Congress, to ask Menlo Park of postpone the debut of his creation. A request dictated by obvious concerns.
The Waters tweet
In this case, the opinion of the democratic deputy was assigned to a tweet, in which Walters took inspiration from Facebook's "turbulent" past to ask the company to postpone Libra's debut. The reason for this request would be found in the need for US institutional and political authorities to investigate problems that would accompany the event and propose solutions in this sense, trying to better regulate the framework in which the arrival of Libra is about to take place.
However, it should be emphasized that Maxine Waters' statement is not to be taken lightly, considering how it is the Chairman of the House Financial Services Commission. In Facebook, in fact, a wall has not risen, but rather conciliatory reactions have arrived, in the clear attempt not to feed controversies in such an important moment for the company.
Facebook's reactions
If from within the Congress no appreciable reactions were recorded, in the form of support for the position expressed by Waters, a Facebook spokesman instead proceeded to declare that the company is looking forward to discussing and answering any questions coming from the Congress or from other political institutions, as Libra's debut approaches.
A reaction that many have immediately led back to the controversies that over the last few years have forced Facebook to account for its work, even in front of an ad hoc commission set up by the US Parliament.
What is the real crux of contention
More than the monetary implications, even in this case, the political authorities of the United States would be worrying how to collect and use data concerning users' financial transactions, that if they end their journey in the hands of the company they could go on to exacerbate the problems of privacy which in the past have weighed heavily on the reputation of Menlo Park.
The role of Calibra
However, it should be emphasized that Facebook has been accommodating in this regard, at least so far. In fact, it is specified in the Libra White Paper how Calibra will handle the transactions, a company owned by it, registered with FinCEN, which will be responsible for keeping the transaction data separate from those collected by the parent company. An intent that raises many doubts, expressed above all by the senator Sherrod Brown, according to which he Facebook is becoming too big and too powerful, so as to raise doubts about the actual possibility of being able to control appetites and behaviors.
