Politicians from Europe and US want strict supervision of Facebook’s Libra payment method
Facebook unveiled the Libra payment method and the Calibra service on Tuesday. The introduction can count on quite a few concerns from politicians from Europe and the US. They call for strict surveillance. A key US Democrat wants Facebook to shelve the plans.
Democratic House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Water urges Facebook to “agree to a moratorium on any move forward in developing a cryptocurrency until US Congress and regulators have a chance to investigate and take action.” ‘ she wrote in a statement released by Reuters. According to her, Facebook has repeatedly shown disregard for the protection and careful use of data. In her statement, she called on Facebook executives to testify before Congress about Libra. It is not yet clear whether that will take place and if so, when.
A Democratic Senate Banking Committee senator was even sharper in his critical stance. Sherrod Brown says Facebook is already “too big and powerful and the company has used that power to exploit user data without protecting their privacy.” We cannot allow Facebook to release a risky new cryptocurrency from an unsupervised Swiss banking company.” He wants financial regulators to enforce strict supervision to ensure that users are protected. A Facebook spokesperson told The Verge that the company is looking forward to answering questions from policymakers.
Critical voices can also be heard from various politicians from Europe. French minister Bruno Le Maire said it is “excluded” that Libra becomes a sovereign currency, Bloomberg writes. “That cannot and should not happen,” the minister said during a radio broadcast. He calls on the directors of the central banks of the G7 countries to come up with a report quickly. Le Maire’s concerns include privacy, money laundering and terrorist financing. Markus Ferber, a German member of the EPP group in the European Parliament, argues that with the Libra payment method, Facebook can become a shadow bank and that regulators should keep a close eye on the process.
Facebook unveiled the Libra payment method and the Calibra service on Tuesday. The idea is that users can pay each other via an app just as easily as sending messages. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger will receive support for this from 2020. The Libra payment method is based on the open source blockchain of the same name, while Calibra is the wallet implementation for Libra.