Mark Zuckerberg's private notes from Facebook hearing accidentally revealed

They show criticism of Apple and how he would have answered calls for him to be fired

An aide to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg closes a binder of notes left on the table as Zuckerberg takes a short break from testifying before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 10, 2018 (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Mark Zuckerberg expected senators to ask him to resign, his private notes have revealed.

The Facebook boss would have made clear that he had made mistakes and that the company had faced "big challenges", they show. But he would say that it had faced such challenges before and succeeded, and would do the same this time around.

During his grilling by congress, Mr Zuckerberg left open the notes that he or an aide had prepared for the questioning. And the notes, which show the variety of ways that Mr Zuckerberg prepared, reveal what he was expecting from the questioning.

In the end, the questions were far more easy to deal with than the ones that Mr Zuckerberg had prepared for. As well as preparing for the unasked question of whether he would step down, the notes concentrate on other big questions – such as whether the company should be fined for harvesting data – but the questioning was largely kept to explaining Facebook's business model.

Mr Zuckerberg's notes were briefly visible to an Associated Press photographer during a hearing Tuesday in which he answered questions about privacy, election interference and other issues.

The bullet-pointed pages include sections on "diversity," "competition," and GDPR, the European data-privacy rules that go into effect next month. Zuckerberg's notes warn him, "don't say we already do what GDPR requires."

The notes even refer to Tim Cook, the Apple CEO who recently criticized Facebook. One note says there are "lots of stories about apps misusing Apple data, never seen Apple notify people."

Most of the notes are written in such a style. Under the heading "compensation", for instance, the notes read "No credit card information or [Social Security numbers] shared" – apparently suggesting that Mr Zuckerberg would reject the idea of paying users caught up in the scandal because they had not lost out monetarily.

Another part of the notes reads "breaking up", which was presumably prepared in case senators brought up the often suggested move that Facebook should be split up into different companies to stop it being a monopoly. "US tech companies key asset for America; break up strengthens Chinese companies," the notes read.

Mr Zuckerberg had undergone intense preparation for the two sets of hearings and other meetings on Capitol Hill, which have been called partly in response to the Cambridge Analytica controversy. As well as the detailed notes, he also underwent mock hearings with Facebook staff role playing as the senators asking him questions.