Facebook has stated that it won’t be sending Mark Zuckerberg to the UK to appear before a parliamentary committee. The same committee that wanted him to forcefully testify the next time he entered the country if he did not come willingly. In a letter, the head of Facebook’s public policy Rebecca Stimson wrote that Zuckerberg “has no plans to meet with the committee or travel to the UK at the present time.” Zuckerberg Is Reluctant About Going To The UK For Data Privacy Testimony and why so?
Zuckerberg has appeared before the US Congress and plans on meeting with the EU lawmakers. However, he has declined to meet the UK’s Digital, Culture, Media, and Sports Committee. Instead, Facebook had sent Mike Schroepfer, their chief technical officer for answering those questions. The committee stated displeasure to those answers. And as such had sent a followup letter to Facebook on May 1st stating that they want Zuckerberg to appear and provide satisfactory answers.
We hope that he will respond positively to our request, but if not the committee will resolve to issue a formal summons for him to appear when he is next in the UK,
committee Chairman Damian Collins stated at the time.
In a recent statement, Collins has said that he is disappointed with Facebook’s response and lack of transparency. He does, however, seem to be backing off from the summons threat and is offering to accept the testimony of Zuckerberg via a video call.
Zuckerberg Is Reluctant About Going To The UK For Data Privacy Testimony read more about it below.
Still, as Zuckerberg has declined the offer, he is at risk of being forced to testify the next time he has a connecting flight through Heathrow and even can face arrest if he doesn’t comply.
Facebook has stated it sees the request to see Zuckerberg as unreasonable. In her letter, Stimson has said, “Facebook has now held lengthy meetings or evidence sessions around the world.” It also includes providing written answers and five hours of testimony from a senior official to the UK committee.
One answer that was not provided by Schroepfer reveals that Facebook’s Like button sends data back to Facebook even when it isn’t clicked, is available on 8.4 million websites. Facebook’s tracking pixel that monitors users is installed on 2.2 million websites.
Collins has stated that these answers are not good enough.
Given that these were follow up questions to questions Mr. Schroepfer previously failed to answer, we expected both detail and data, and in a number of cases got excuses,
is what he wrote out recently.
Zuckerberg Is Reluctant About Going To The UK For Data Privacy Testimony. What are your thoughts on the matter? Leave a comment below to let us know.
