House Democrats Urge Facebook to Halt Plans for Digital Currency

Several House Democrats, led by Maxine Waters, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to Facebook executives urging them to halt plans for a new digital currency called the Libra.

“We write to request that Facebook and its partners immediately agree to a moratorium on any movement forward on Libra – its proposed cryptocurrency and Calibra – its proposed digital wallet,” said the letter. “While Facebook has published a ‘white paper’ on these projects, the scant information provided about the intent, roles, potential use, and security of the Libra and Calibra exposes the massive scale of the risks and the lack of clear regulatory protections.”

The House Democrats expressed concern that the Libra would be based out of Switzerland, leading some to think that the Libra could one day rival the U.S. dollar. Moreover, Facebook has received significant backlash from some Congressman over its lack of data security over the past several years. 

The letter’s authors ask Facebook to halt operations until Congress can hold hearings to better understand the Libra. In fact, the Senate Banking Committee has already scheduled a hearing at 10 AM on July 16 entitled, “Examining Facebook’s Proposed Digital Currency and Data Privacy Considerations.”