Washington — Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to appear before a congressional panel next week, putting a spotlight on the Facebook CE and social networking giant under pressure after a massive breach of private data and misinformation on the platform.
The House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee announced on Wednesday what appeared to be the first congressional appearance by Zuckerberg since the scandal broke.
The April 11 hearing will "be an important opportunity to shed light on critical consumer data privacy issues and help all Americans better understand what happens to their personal information online", said the committee’s Republican chairman, Greg Walden, and ranking Democrat Frank Pallone.
Zuckerberg will probably face multiple congressional hearings as Facebook battles a firestorm following revelations that the British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica obtained the data of 50-million Facebook users to try and manipulate voters in the 2016 US election.
The network faces probes on both sides of the Atlantic over the misuse of data
The Facebook co-founder has also been invited to appear before the Senate’s Judiciary Committee on April 10, alongside Google chief Sundar Pichai and Twitter head Jack Dorsey.
Zuckerberg’s participation has not been confirmed but Senator Dianne Feinstein said the Facebook boss had agreed to attend that hearing.
Zuckerberg, who has been making a series of media appearances after staying silent for several days on the breach, said earlier this week it would take "a few years" to fix the problems uncovered by the revelations on data misuse. He said one of Facebook’s problems was that it was "idealistic", focusing on the positive aspects of connecting people and that "we didn’t spend enough time investing in, or thinking through, some of the downside uses of the tools".
The network faces probes on both sides of the Atlantic over the misuse of data, which Facebook attributed to a breach of terms of service by an academic researcher linked to the consulting firm working for Donald Trump’s campaign.
On Tuesday, Facebook said it deleted dozens of accounts linked to a Russian-sponsored internet unit accused of spreading propaganda in the US.
AFP
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