Social media can be difficult to understand, but luckily for Congress they had the Facebook whistleblower walk them through it on “Saturday Night Live.”
The NBC variety show opened up on Saturday with Frances Haugen, played by Heidi Gardner, giving testimony on Capitol Hill about the internal workings of Facebook. Unfortunately for Gardner’s Haugen, it quickly turned into Congress asking questions about how social media works.
“I would like to thank the Facebook whisleblower for coming forward,” Mikey Day’s Sen. Richard Blumenthal said.
Gardner’s Haugen responded by saying that it was nice to be in an office with “no skateboards.”
Day’s Blumenthal then let his colleagues ask questions to Haugen, with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, played by Cecily Strong, going first.
“What Facebook has done is disgraceful and you better believe that Congress will be taking action,” she said. “Right after we pass the infrastructure bill, raise the debt ceiling, prosecute those responsible for the January 6th insurrection and stop Trump from using executive privilege, even though he’s no longer president. But after all that, you watch out, Facebook!”
She then asked if having 2,000 friends on Facebook is “good.”
“How many does Drake have? 4,000?” Strong’s Feinstein asked.
“I think he has like 50 million,” Gardner’s Haugen said.
“Oh my God, no wonder he never answered my poke,” Strong’s Feinstein responded.
The questioning then shifted to Sen. Ted Cruz, played by Aidy Bryant.
“I was particularly drawn to your testimony about bullying online,” Bryant’s Cruz said. “How some teenagers, and even some adult men, are bullied almost constantly.”
Bryant’s Cruz then asked how to turn off the bullying feature and said he was concerned about the toxic groups Gardner’s Haugen mentioned.
“I’ve seen groups with hateful names, like ‘Ted Cruz sucks'” Bryant’s Cruz said. “Now, shouldn’t you flag those as misinformation?”
Gardner’s Haugen explained to Bryant’s Cruz that those groups weren’t misinformation, but rather just one person’s opinion.
“Well, it’s more than one person’s opinion,” he said.
The sketch came to an end with two of social media’s leaders joining the questioning.
The first was Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg played by Alex Moffat.
“No, no, we don’t need any more from that guy,” Day’s Blumenthal said.
Instead, he went to the “O.G. social media king,” Tom from Myspace, who was played by Pete Davidson.
“Remember me? I was harmless,” Davidson’s Tom said. “I’m not doing anything of that weird algorithm stuff. We barely maintain the website.”
He then said, “Come on by, check out your friend’s band from 20 years ago” and “let’s make America top 8 again.”
Davidson’s Tom then kicked off the show with its signature catchphrase, “Live, from New York… It’s Saturday night!”
