Senators cluelessly question whistleblower about Facebook in SNL cold open

Saturday Night Live turned its focus to last week's congressional hearing, during which whistleblower and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen testified about her concerns over the social media company's practices, in the comedy show's latest cold open.
Heidi Gardner took on the role of Haugen, who had the difficult task of trying to answer questions from Senators, who were, to put it gently, just a tad clueless about the platform. Cecily Strong's Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), for instance, mostly wanted to know whether the fact that she had 2,000 Facebook friends is impressive, and Kyle Mooney's Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) really wanted to figure out what "the algorithm" is. Meanwhile, Aidy Bryant's Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) was excited to learn that it's possible to turn off comments after decrying the fact that "some teenagers, and even some adult men, are bullied almost constantly" on the site. Watch the full clip below.
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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
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