First Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg testified before a U.S. Congressional hearing about the social network’s privacy policies, and now he’s doing the same in the European Union. Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify before the European Parliament on Tuesday, May 22nd.
The EU’s hearing follows the Cambridge Analytica scandal where personal information about Facebook users was harvested and used in the Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Thousands of user’s profiles were harvested, along with the profiles of their Facebook friends. Ultimately, millions of profiles were collected.
[Mark Zuckerberg Says Privacy Is for the Rich]
The company said harvesting user profiles like that was a violation of its terms of service. It has since committed to improving its screening and protection systems to prevent similar situations in the future.
Facebook found itself the target of an FTC investigation, and Zuckerberg was called to testify before a Congressional Hearing. During the hearing Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) told Zuckerberg, “Here’s what everybody has been trying to tell you today and I say this gently: Your user agreement sucks.”
[FTC Launches Investigation into Facebook’s Privacy Practices]
[Senator Kennedy: Facebook’s User Agreement Sucks]
Now Zuckerberg is set to testify before the EU’s European Parliament. Like the Congressional hearings, the EU is live streaming the event. You can watch it on the European Parliament website.
European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said last week,
Our citizens deserve a full and detailed explanation. I welcome Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to appear in person before the representatives of 500 million Europeans. It is a step in the right direction towards restoring confidence.
It’s no wonder the EU wants to question Zuckerberg. Cambridge Analytica has been involved in other elections as well, including the Brexit campaign where U.K. citizens voted to leave the E.U.
U.K. officials requested Zuckerberg testify at their own hearing, but he refused. His refusal, and subsequent decision to testify at the E.U. hearing will no doubt ruffle law maker’s feathers in the U.K.