As a follow-up concerning the ongoing issue of the leaked information to Cambridge Analytica and the recent issue of Facebook collecting and storing personal call data, Mark Zuckerberg has plans to testify before U.S. Congress.
Zuckerberg has also declined to explain to a British parliamentary committee what went wrong with Facebook as he has turned down invitations by British lawmakers’ to explain the current situations. Instead, he plans on sending the Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer or Chief Product Officer Chris Cox who he believes are better equipped to answer any questions. Facebooks’ UK head of public policy Rebecca Stimson has also stated in a letter to Damian Collins, the chair of the committee that ” Facebook fully recognizes the level of Parliamentary and Public interest in these issues and supports your belief that these issues must be addressed at the most senior levels of the company by those in authoritative position to answer your questions. As such, Mr. Zuckerberg has personally asked one of his deputies to make themselves available”. Mr. Collins has urged Zuckerberg to reconsider his decision.
The company is under immense pressure from both sides of the Atlantic as U.S. and Europe lawmakers are demanding to know more about the company’s privacy regulations. Mr. Collins irrespective of Zuckerberg’s reply has also stated that lawmakers still wanted to speak to Zuckerberg and they would see if they could set up an arrangement for a session in person or via a video call link with him.
Zuckerberg has apologized for the mistakes Facebook has made and has promised to take stricter steps in order to restrict the access of developers to such information. Christopher Wylie of Cambridge Analytica still insists that Facebook was fully aware of the data handling. The share price of the company has fallen almost 18 percent and the tech sector is down 5.2 percent for March as the data breach has caused investors to be concerned due to the possibility that this sort of failure could dissuade advertisers and may result in stricter regulations on the company.
