When Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified to a Senate subcommittee last week, she addressed questions from two shareholders in the company: Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kans.). The pair, whose questions were widely covered on financial cable news shows, did not disclose their stakes.
The two senators are not the only ones on Capitol Hill invested in Facebook. As lawmakers consider changes to legal protections for tech platforms and potentially resolve regulatory issues in ways favorable for giants like Facebook, the households of at least five senators and 24 representatives hold Facebook stock, totaling a minimum value of $2.3 million and a maximum value of over $8.4 million, a Sludge review of financial disclosures found. Members of Congress are only required to report their investments in broad ranges, so it’s not possible to know with precision how much their shares are worth, and assets are reported to the Senate and House as being held by the member, their spouse, jointly, or by a dependent.
Facebook’s operations are coming under scrutiny on a number of fronts in Congress, from user privacy concerns to claims of censorship and the company’s digital currency that it had planned to launch sometime this year. Along with a package of antitrust legislation being developed in the House, dozens of lawmakers may soon vote on bills to rein in Big Tech that could affect their investment portfolios.
