The UK parliament has issued an impressive ultimatum to Facebook in a last ditch attempt to get Mark Zuckerberg to take its questions: Come and give evidence voluntarily or next time you fly to the UK you\u2019ll get a formal summons to appear. \u201cFollowing reports that he will be giving evide\u2026<\/b>
\nThe UK parliament has issued an impressive ultimatum to Facebook in a last ditch attempt to get Mark Zuckerberg to take its questions: Come and give evidence voluntarily or next time you fly to the UK you\u2019ll get a formal summons to appear.
\u201cFollowing reports that he will be giving evidence to the European Parliament in May, we would like Mr Zuckerberg to come to London during his European trip. We would like the session here to place by 24 May,\u201d the committee writes in its latest letter to the company, signed by its chair, Conservative MP Damian Collins.
\u201cIt is worth noting that, while Mr Zuckerberg does not normally come under the jurisdiction of the UK Parliament, he will do so the next time he enters the country,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe 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.\u201d
Facebook has repeatedly ignored the DCMS committee \u2018s requests that its CEO and founder appear before it \u2014 preferring to send various minions to answer questions related to its enquiry into online disinformation and the role of social media in politics and democracy.
The most recent Zuckerberg alternative to appear before it was also the most senior: Facebook\u2019s CTO, Mike Schroepfer, who claimed he had personally volunteered to make the trip to London to give evidence.
However for all Schroepfer\u2019s sweating toil to try to stand in for the company\u2019s chief exec, his answers failed to impress UK parliamentarians. And immediately following the hearing the committee issued a press release repeating their call for Zuckerberg to testify, noting that Schroepfer had failed to provide adequate answers to as many of 40 of its questions.
Schroepfer did sit through around five hours of grilling on a wide range of topics with the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal front and center \u2014 the story having morphed into a major global scandal for the company after fresh revelations were published by the Guardian in March (although the newspaper actually published its first story about Facebook data misuse by the company all the way back in December 2015) \u2014 though in last week\u2019s hearing Schroepfer frequently fell back on claiming he didn\u2019t know the answer and would have to \u201cfollow up\u201d.
Yet the committee has been asking Facebook for straight answers for months. So you can see why it\u2019s really mad now.
We reached out to Facebook to ask whether its CEO will now agree to personally testify in front of the committee by May 24, per its request, but the company declined to provide a public statement on the issue.
A company spokesperson did say it would be following up with the committee to answer any outstanding questions it had after Schroepfer\u2019s session.
It\u2019s fair to say Facebook has handled this issue exceptionally badly \u2014 leaving Collins to express public frustration about the lack of co-operation when, for example, he had asked it for help and information related to the UK\u2019s Brexit referendum \u2014 turning what could have been a fairly easy to manage process into a major media circus-cum-PR nightmare.
Last week Schroepfer was on the sharp end of lots of awkward questions from visibly outraged committee members, with Collins pointing to what he dubbed a \u201cpattern of behavior\u201d by Facebook that he said suggested an \u201cunwillingness to engage, and a desire to hold onto information and not disclose it\u201d.
Committee members also interrogated Schroepfer about why another Facebook employee who appeared before it in February had not disclosed an existing agreement between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica .
\u201cI remain to be convinced that your company has integrity,\u201d he was told bluntly by one.
If Zuckerberg does agree to testify he\u2019ll be in for an even bumpier ride. And, well, if he doesn\u2019t it looks pretty clear the Facebook CEO won\u2019t be making any personal trips to the UK for a while.<\/p>\n

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