When the Cambridge Analytica scandal first broke — and along with it, the news that the company had boasted of using deceptive and illegal tactics to sell Brexit — Parliament asked Mark Zuckerberg to show up and account for himself. He told them to go fuck themselves.
Now, Parliament has asked a little less nicely, giving Zuck the choice to comply voluntarily or to be “summoned” to appear, which would make him legally obliged to drag his carcass before angry Parliamentarians for a ritual drubbing, on pain of being dragged into Parliament the next time he set foot on British soil (for a much more serious drubbing, naturally).
The threat/invitation points out that Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer, the hapless human shield Zuck sent in his stead last month, was useless and gave no satisfaction to the MPs who quizzed him. They want Zuck to answer 39 questions Schroepfer wasn’t able to respond to.
In his letter, Collins includes 39 questions that Facebook is supposed to follow up on from Schroepfer’s appearance. Just looking at the list indicates how much smarter its line of questioning is. Questions include, “What is the percentage of sites on the internet on which Facebook tracks users?,” “What is the legal situation regarding Facebook storing non-Facebook users’ data?” and “Do you know how many developers were using and selling data on to third parties?”The committee requests answers to those questions by May 11th and asks that Zuckerberg appear on May 24th. He is already scheduled to meet with EU Parliament members around the same time.
UK committee demands Zuckerberg testify this month, or face summons
[Jacob Kastrenakes/The Verge]