Zuckerberg Refuses to Attend UK Data Privacy Hearing

Zuckerberg doesn’t plan to answer any questions in the UK.

It appears that the co-founder of Facebook doesn’t want to sit in the hot chair anymore. At least not in the UK. Everyone knows about his recent appearance before Congress, and while he definitely dodged a few questions while he was there, he managed to shed some light on the Cambridge Analytica situation. Following his testimony, Facebook has suffered several changes regarding user data collection and privacy. However, the UK wants to ask Zuckerberg a few questions as well. Therefore, they asked the CEO to appear before the UK’s Digital, Culture, Media, and Sports Committee.

Mark has declined this invitation.

Back in March, the CEO decided to send executive Mike Schroepfer to testify on his behalf. The thing is, his answers weren’t exactly satisfactory. Therefore, the Committee asked Mark once again to travel to the UK and answer the questions himself. This time around, they also mentioned a “formal summons,” which would be enforced if he decides to ignore them again. This summons would basically force the CEO to appear in front of the Committee next time he enters the UK. Committee Chair Damian Collins MP issued an official statement on the matter:

“If Mark Zuckerberg truly recognizes the ‘seriousness’ of these issues as he says he does, we would expect that he would want to appear in front of the Committee and answer questions that are of concern not only to Parliament but Facebook’s tens of millions of users in this country.” 

Collins even asked Zuckerberg to testify by video, which means that he doesn’t really need to travel to the UK in order to meet the Committee’s demands. While Facebook has not responded to this new invitation just yet, we’ll definitely keep you posted.