Republican senator comes under fire after “Swahili” reference during Facebook hearings

John Kennedy: “I have nothing to apologize for.”

While questioning Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the first day of his Congressional hearings about the platform’s privacy agreement, Sen. John Kennedy, (R-LA) offered a scathing review of the policy and requested whether the company’s lawyers could put the terms into more understandable language.

It seemed like a benign request until he added this:

“Tell them you want it written in English and non-Swahili, so the average American can understand it. That would be a start,” he said.

Social media users condemned the remarks noting that while they may have agreed with the Senator’s overall sentiment, the Swahili reference was unnecessary.

I was totally with Senator Kennedy just now until he made a totally racial slur about #Facebook’s privacy policy needing to make sense and “not be in Swahili” ? #Zuckerberg @SenJohnKennedy

— Lisa Rose (@ecotist) April 10, 2018

Did Sen. Kennedy just say “and not Swahili,” so the basic American can “understand”? #Zuckerberg pic.twitter.com/FhlpfzvzoD

— Taylor Barfield ❤ (@TaylorInChief) April 10, 2018

Oh come on. #Swahili is your short hand for “confusing unintelligible language”? Senator Kennedy, Swahili is actually a pretty straight forward language.

— Rose Jackson (@Rosejackson3) April 10, 2018

So now Senator Kennedy comes for Swahili as if it’s a language no one understands? Millions of Africans speak the language, sir.

— Tamia Booker (@TamiaDBooker) April 10, 2018

Later a CNN journalist followed up with Kennedy and asked whether he would apologize after learning he offended some with his racialized wording. He declined to apologize saying, ‘there’s nothing to apologize for. I think everybody understands the point I was trying to make.”

Zuckerberg appeared before congress this week to answer for discoveries that Facebook allowed data of 87 million users to third parties without the user’s knowledge.