At some point this man is going to have to face all the nasty things he has done.
Mark Zuckerberg has come under intense fire from the UK parliamentary committee investigating fake news after the Facebook head refused an invitation to testify in front of MPs for a third time.
Speaking after questioning the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, for almost three hours, the committee chair, Damian Collins, said: “I think, given the extraordinary evidence we’ve heard so far today, it is absolutely astonishing that Mark Zuckerberg is not prepared to submit himself to questioning in front of a parliamentary or congressional hearing, given these are questions of fundamental importance and concern to his users, as well as to this inquiry as well.
“I would certainly urge him to think again if he has any care for people that use his company’s services.”
Zuckerberg has been invited to speak to the committee, which is investigating the effects of fake news on UK democracy, three times, but has always sent underlings to testify in his stead.
Even when the committee travelled to Washington DC in February to obtain oral evidence from American companies, Facebook flew its UK policy director over, rather than send a high-level executive to speak to the committee.
In response to the latest request, Facebook has suggested one of two executives could speak to parliament: either Chris Cox, the company’ chief product officer, who is in charge of the Facebook news feed, or Mike Schroepfer, the chief technology officer, who heads up the developer platform.
“Facebook fully recognises the level of public and parliamentary interest in these issues,” the company’s head of public policy, Rebecca Stimson, said in a letter to Collins, “and support your belief that these issues must be addressed at the most senior levels of the company by those in an authoritative position to answer your questions. As such Mr Zuckerberg has personally asked one of his deputies to make themselves available.”
Both men, Stimson wrote, “report directly to Mr Zuckerberg and are among the longest-serving senior representatives in Facebook’s 15-year history. Both of them have extensive expertise in these issues and are well placed to answer the committee’s questions on these complex subjects.”
Read more: TheGuardian
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