Members of parliament in five different countries are pressuring Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify in an “international grand committee” after he previously snubbed Canadian and British lawmaker requests to testify.
“We were very disappointed with this dismissive response,” the members wrote of Facebook’s response to the British and Canadian requests for Zuckerberg to testify.
Now members of parliament from five countries want Zuckerberg to give testimony before an “international grand committee” of lawmakers.
The letter’s signatories comprised the U.K.’s Damian Collins, Canada’s Bob Zimmer, Argentina’s Leopoldo Moreau, Australia’s James McGrath and Ireland’s Hildegarde Naughton.
Facebook’s heads of public policy in the U.K. and Canada last week sent a letter saying that Zuckerberg would not testify to British member of parliament Damian Collins and Canadian member of parliament Bob Zimmer.
Collins and Zimmer’s letter had been addressed to Zuckerberg directly and asked that he testify before a joint committee of Canadian and British lawmakers in London on Facebook’s data privacy practices and the spread of disinformation on its platform.
The group of lawmakers on Monday hammered Facebook’s response letter.
“The letter states that you ‘fully recognise the seriousness of these issues and remain committed to working with [your committees] to provide any additional relevant information you require’, but offers no means of achieving this co-operation.”
Zuckerberg had previously been asked by Collins alone to testify before British lawmakers but declined, making this Collin’s third request for the Facebook CEO.
Zuckerberg has previously testified before U.S. Congress and European Parliament.