MPs call on Zuckerberg to testify to international committee on ‘fake news’

MPs in Canada and the United Kingdom have stepped up their efforts to get the chance to grill Facebook Inc.’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg at a parliamentary committee hearing. The chairs of two parliamentary committees from both countries jointly called on Zuckerberg Tuesday to appear before an ‘international grand committee’ on disinformation and ‘fake news’ in the UK next month – which the pair say will be the first of its kind. The two chairs issued an open letter to Zuckerberg Tuesday requesting he appear on Nov. 27 at the UK Parliament to answer questions from politicians from both countries. The joint-letter from Canadian MP Bob Zimmer and UK MP Damian Collins said his testimony to Canada and the UK is “overdue” and “urgent.” Both committees have been studying the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica data-sharing scandal over the past year and each have asked Zuckerberg to testify. He has so far declined and Facebook has sent other officials instead, although their testimony left lawmakers unsatisfied. Zuckerberg has, however, appeared before the U.S. Congress, Senate and the European Parliament. “We understand that it is not possible to make yourself available to all parliaments,” the two wrote. “However, we believe that your users in other countries need a line of accountability to your organisation –– directly, via yourself. “Given your self-declared objective to ‘fix’ Facebook, and to prevent the platform’s malign use in world affairs and democratic process, we would like to give you the chance to appear at this hearing.” Zimmer, who chairs the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in Canada, said in a statement Tuesday that they “expect him to show respect for both of our great nations by appearing at this hearing to answer for his platform’s practices.” The House of Commons ethics committee has, over the past year, been studying the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach that affected some 87 million Facebook accounts around the world. Canadian MPs have been cooperating with their UK counterparts throughout the study.

MPs call on Zuckerberg to testify to international committee on ‘fake news’

Brief | October 31, 2018

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MPs call on Zuckerberg to testify to international committee on ‘fake news’

Brief | October 31, 2018

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